Why I Oppose I-25 Underpass and Favor an Improved Partial Cloverleaf
by Centennial Councilwoman Rebecca McClellan
Plans to improve the I-25 & Arapahoe Rd. interchange could include an underpass from the Country Dinner Playhouse area, under I-25, to intersect Yosemite near Walnut Hills. The underpass would direct an eventual 18,000 cars daily onto Yosemite, and would add an estimated $55.6 million to the cost of the project to begin with.
I support the improved partial cloverleaf design without an underpass. I have been the leading voice of opposition to the underpass concepts because I believe we must avoid using eminent domain to take people's homes or businesses. We need to save the more than $55.6 million underpass cost by putting our money to work at the I-25 & Arapahoe interchange itself, where it's truly needed. It doesn't help to increase traffic dramatically toward homes and an elementary school, and interchange improvements shouldn't take a back seat to a controversial underpass that could damage home values and businesses.
You may have heard that the process to select a plan to improve the interchange is only beginning. Unfortunately, the truth is the underpass plan has been communicated to members of Congress as a locally preferred option (according to the post trip report from the February, 2010 Washington trip), despite prior written notice from the Walnut Hills Civic Association, formally opposing the underpass. I was not a part of the February, 2010 delegation.
Initiated in 2005, the Arapahoe Road Corridor Study held meetings for input, but the public outreach is thought by many to have been insufficient. When I went door to door in 2009 to talk with residents about an alternate underpass location, I could not find a single resident who knew about any underpass plan. According to David Evans & Associates, who performed the Study's public outreach, only three residents west of Yosemite were mailed notice of the 2005 Arapahoe Road Corridor Study by that firm. Centennial was represented on the Arapahoe Road Corridor Study's executive committee by then Mayor Randy Pye, a registered lobbyist with Capitol Solutions for the last year of his mayoral term.
I-25 Coalition meetings, held at the Greenwood Village City offices, have been unrecorded and without public audience, over my repeated requests for greater transparency. In one of my last meetings on the Coalition, I asked that the Centennial City Attorney attend, and I brought a recording device, which I disclosed. Following my call for greater transparency and my opposition to the waste of $55.6 million on an underpass, I am no longer a member of the Coalition. The lobbying contract with Capitol Partnerships (VA) Inc., for the Coalition is run through the City of Greenwood Village, with the monthly payments of $5,000. each from Arapahoe County and Centennial, being paid to the City of Greenwood Village. I support the aim of improving the interchange itself. I am concerned that citizens may have had a less public process than we should have, with Coalition meetings and technical and executive committee meetings having been held unrecorded and without adequate public involvement.
Recently, the Centennial City Council adopted potentially protective 1041 regulations that may require a permit before construction of an underpass into Centennial. To hear my support for these protections, please listen to the audio portion of the Regular Meeting of June 21, 2010, under General Business, Item C, click on item xi, then listen to the proceedings after the vote on item xi, at www.CentennialColorado.com. I was disappointed that concerned citizens, whose property is threatened, were not given any warning that their protections under the 1041 regulations might be changed on June 21st, but worked quickly to ensure that the council would remain in a position to take responsibility in this matter.
Your taxes have been paid, but it's still your money and you should have a say in how it's spent. Citizens can state their opinions on the project by writing to: Leah Langerman, Community Outreach Coordinator, David Evans & Associates, 1331 17th Street, Suite 900, Denver, CO 80202. phone: (720) 225-4651, fax: (720) 946-0973. LLangerman@deainc.com. David Evans & Associates has been contracted to conduct the public outreach for the Environmental Assessment.
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