As elected officials and local planners battle over the future of the proposed Jefferson County Parkway, it’s the taxpayers who have paid the price — nearly $5 million for lawyers, consultants and studies, according to a review of financial records.
The millions, paid by residents of Jefferson County, Arvada, Golden and Broomfield over the past 10 years, is on top of the $15 million tab picked up by state taxpayers for an environmental impact study on the project. The study was never completed.
Golden, which has fought the toll road from the beginning, has paid $3.4 million of the $5 million.
The most recent tally from Arvada, a big supporter of the parkway, is nearly $900,000. And Jefferson County and Broomfield, also toll-road backers, have each paid out at least $300,000 in the past year.
And they say it’s worth every penny.
“We have to fight now because once it’s built, we will be dealing with the enormous impacts forever,” said Golden Mayor Jacob Smith. “Our residents don’t want a giant super highway going through a narrow valley.”
Bill Ray, deputy city manager of Arvada, said that once the state dropped the project, the surrounding areas had to pick up the pieces.
“We would have preferred (the state) go forward with this, but now we need to do it,” said Ray, who along with other supporters, says the parkway is necessary to relieve traffic congestion and encourage development. “There’s work that has to be done, so we need to front-end that money.”
State planners have said that they didn’t finish the study because of the challenging economy and the inability to reach a consensus on the project.
Recent developments regarding the toll road indicate that taxpayers will be on the hook for more money down the road.
The county, Arvada and Broomfield have formed the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority, which is dedicated to finding a private partner to build the toll road running from Colorado 128 near Interlocken Loop to Colorado 93 near 64th Avenue Parkway.
Last week, the group cleared an important first hurdle when Colorado’s transportation department gave them the go-ahead to conduct further studies and an environmental analysis on the potential impact of the road. That, along with other requirements, will cost money.
Golden and Arvada wrote big checks for everything from engineering studies to lawyers who reviewed plans, as well as small checks for coffee and deli sandwiches for meetings.
The county, Broomfield, and Arvada have each written $300,000 checks to the authority for its expenses.
Jefferson County Commissioner Kevin McCasky, a member of the board, said authority members intend to recoup the money from a yet-to-be-determined private firm, which will be hired to handle the parkway project.
“We plan to recover our expenditures from them,” McCasky said.
Karen Crummy: 303-954-1594 or kcrummy@denverpost.com
