Let’s make one thing clear: From Golden’s perspective, the proposed Jefferson Parkway toll road is a bad idea that would negatively impact the region.
It wouldn’t improve transportation in the northwest part of Jefferson County and it actually would worsen congestion in much of Arvada and Jefferson County.
It would increase development that would mar that naturally beautiful area.
It would hand over another piece of our state’s infrastructure to a private company that wouldn’t be accountable to Coloradans.
But, though Golden’s views are clearly on the record, Jefferson County and Arvada officials have pushed aggressively forward to build the road. Ultimately, that’s a stance they’ll have to explain to their constituents.
If Golden leaders can’t convince the region that the Jefferson Parkway is the wrong approach, we are left to focus on protecting the best interests of our constituents.
Golden has talked with Jefferson Parkway proponents about a potential agreement where Golden would move to an officially neutral position – still not supporting the toll road – in exchange for protections Golden needs to ensure that the Jefferson Parkway wouldn’t negatively impact our residents.
Over the past two decades, Golden has successfully prevented the beltway from bisecting the city and, in a major victory two years ago, the state dropped its beltway plan.
The proponents of the beltway extension have scaled back their proposal to the Jefferson Parkway, a short, privately funded toll highway which would end five miles north of town. The Jefferson Parkway would run between Highways 93 and 128, intersecting with but not overlapping Highway 93.
Now, as the proponents get close to being able to seek private investors for their project, Golden has to choose whether to focus on stopping the Jefferson Parkway or on securing our own key improvements to keep highway traffic in Golden safe, slow, and quiet.
Seven years ago, Golden developed a proposal — based on broad citizen input — to fix our current transportation problems and protect Golden’s quality of life, regardless of changes in traffic volume over time. The potential agreement with Jefferson Parkway backers would keep the beltway out of Golden and enable Golden to move forward with this plan.
In fact, unless Golden resolves its differences with Jefferson County, we will not be able to make these improvements in town in the foreseeable future. An agreement would require buy-in from the Colorado Department of Transportation, removing what could potentially be a key obstacle to improvements like these.
Under our plan, every new overpass in Golden would physically limit the roadway beneath it to four lanes, making it very difficult to ever force a six- or eight-lane beltway through Golden. And a related proposed agreement would permanently reduce potential development in northern Jefferson County by protecting a critical wildlife habitat area north of Golden.
Our other main option would be to file a lawsuit to block the Jefferson Parkway. This might stop the Jefferson Parkway and stopping the toll road would reduce the intensity of the sprawl in northern Jefferson County.
The disadvantages of this option include the cost of litigation and the uncertainty of court proceedings, regardless of the strength of our case. Filing a lawsuit also wouldn’t help us make the improvements in Golden described above.
In a perfect world, there would be no trade-offs. But, in this case, both options carry some costs and benefits. Our neighborhoods are currently heavily impacted by 6 and 93, and those problems will get worse with or without the Jefferson Parkway.
To read more about Golden’s options, you can visit .
For years, Golden has argued that proposals to build new toll highways in northwest Metro Denver would create more problems than they would solve. So far, however, we have not deterred the Jefferson Parkway proponents and they are making progress towards their goal.
Now is the time to consider Golden’s bottom lines and how we can best protect those.
Jacob Smith is the mayor of Golden. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
