Political squabbling between city and county governments may have stalled progress on the Jefferson Parkway, the long-disputed toll road that would link Northwest Parkway to C-470.
The Jefferson County commissioners on Wednesday sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, asking him to reject a request by Boulder and Boulder County to delay the sale of 100 acres of right of way for the road.
The city and county of Boulder moved to block the right-of-way transfer until a deal between the governments to purchase 640 acres of Rocky Flats refuge land, known as Section 16, for open space is struck. That transaction is key to the city and county of Boulder’s dropping their opposition to the 10-mile toll road.
Jefferson County has pledged $5 million toward the open-space purchase, and the governments have been negotiating the issue for months.
But in a Feb. 3 letter to Salazar, Boulder Mayor Susan Osborne and Boulder County Commissioner Ben Pearlman asked Salazar to delay the purchase of a transportation right of way — a 300-foot-wide strip along the eastern edge of Rocky Flats — in order to conduct more environmental analysis.
Assistant Jefferson County Administrator Kate Newman said the parcel was reserved by federal legislation as a transportation corridor, and the area has already been environmentally assessed. “The wildlife refuge set it aside for that,” she said.
Boulder policy analyst Megan Davis said, “For us to drop our opposition, we need an agreement that’s going to solidify the purchase of Section 16.”
Davis said the letter merely restates Boulder’s position. “Since we don’t have an IGA (intergovernmental agreement), we still maintain we are opposed to the transfer of the right of way. We are not articulating any new position.”
But Jefferson County Commissioner Kevin McCasky, who is giving up his commission post and position as parkway board chairman to become president of the Jefferson Economic Council, said the lack of open-space agreement should not slow progress on the toll road.
“We are no longer going to participate if the Boulders connect the purchase of open space to the parkway,” he said. “No other agency has committed any funding. To make this kind of statement and send it to Salazar is a hollow attempt and a lack of good faith and cooperation that we have put a significant amount of staff time in to bring it to fruition.”
In the meantime, the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority, which includes Broomfield, Arvada and Jefferson County, has been meeting and collecting bid information with plans to prepare proposals and develop contracts to construct a 10-mile link between Colorado 128 and Colorado 93.
“There is no reason to stop it now,” McCasky said.
