Connect with us

Denver, CO

Should Denver pay $15 million to study widening Peña Boulevard? The council will finally decide.

Published

on

Should Denver pay  million to study widening Peña Boulevard? The council will finally decide.


A $15 million contract to study and begin designing a potential widening of Peña Boulevard has put a spotlight on a longstanding fissure among Denver City Council members as they grapple with how to address the often-congested artery to Denver International Airport.

Ahead of a vote Tuesday, some on the council say the study is a necessary step in pursuing an intuitive solution — more lanes — for a worsening traffic problem. Others see the proposal as an expensive, dead-end deal that won’t thoroughly consider improving transit options.

“We don’t know what’s going to come of the study,” said Phil Washington, the CEO for the airport. “The study itself will reveal other alternatives that are possibilities. So all we’re saying is: Let’s do the study.”

If approved, the five-year contract with Lakewood-based Peak Consulting would be paid for out of DIA accounts. It would include an environmental review to meet federal requirements and some design work for the project.

Advertisement

DIA, where over 40,000 people work, has said for years that the city needs to find a way to address the ballooning congestion. The average daily traffic on the road has increased 80% between the airport’s opening in 1995 and 2023, from 75,000 vehicles to more than 136,000. That figure could exceed 186,000 vehicles before 2050, the airport has estimated.

Between 2016 and 2023, roughly 45% of 1,250 crashes along the road were read-end collisions, largely due to congestion, DIA data shows.

“I would ask that we push this through because it protects the safety of my community,” said Councilwoman Stacie Gilmore, who represents the communities around Peña Boulevard, during a committee meeting on the proposal. “Otherwise, you’re trapping us.”

DIA and the council are looking primarily at Peña west of E-470. East of the tollway, where it’s largely an airport-access road, DIA has been widening and rebuilding the road on its own in recent years.

Last year, Gilmore and six other council members approved an agreement for a $5 million state grant that, coupled with money from DIA, set aside $18.5 million for environmental studies and design of the widening, plus some other things. Six of the 13 council members, including Councilwoman Sarah Parady, voted against it.

Advertisement

Now the contract for studies and design work is bringing the issue back to the council.

Parady has said she won’t support the proposal unless it explicitly includes research into how to encourage more people to take the A-Line train, which runs from Union Station to DIA’s terminal.

“I feel like I’m in crazyland here, you guys,” Parady said during a March committee meeting. “The train runs along the road. We are dying of climate change. How are we not even going to study that?”

Click to enlarge

Is A-Line expansion a possibility?

Parady wants to see the airport examine things like safety concerns, public awareness of the train and possible changes to the A-line’s fares, frequency and infrastructure.

Scott Morrissey, the vice president of sustainability for the airport, responded that there wasn’t evidence that a transit-only solution could alleviate traffic.

Advertisement

The A-Line is one of the Regional Transportation District’s most-used rail lines, but it isn’t at capacity. RTD has suggested that it wouldn’t dedicate funding to making improvements on the line until the train cars are full.

“There is not a possibility to expand the A-Line, nor is there a need right now. Until we can fill it up,” said Councilman Kevin Flynn, who represents southwest Denver and supports the road expansion. “This is not the place to wage a war on cars.”

But opponents of the plan have also pointed to past studies, which show that widening roads can alleviate traffic temporarily — but ultimately attracts more people to drive on them, rather than spurring people to consider alternative options, such as transit.

If the airport does decide to widen the road, Morrissey said, it won’t be to add another general-purpose lane.

Last year, the airport released updated master plans for its transportation demand and Peña Boulevard, with the goal of reducing “drive-alone trips” for employees and passengers. The plan laid out possible improvements for the highway. Those options, which would likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars, included possibly adding a bus-only lane or a managed toll lane.

Advertisement

The environmental study would be conducted in line with the current federal National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, process. One snag: the way developers comply with NEPA, which has been criticized as an overly onerous and expensive process, may be changing under President Donald Trump’s administration.

The airport vowed to study impacts prioritized at the local level, “even if they might not be in the official federal NEPA documentation,” Morrissey said.

Outbound traffic along Peña Boulevard at Denver International Airport on Friday, March 28, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Outbound traffic along Peña Boulevard at Denver International Airport on Friday, March 28, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)

Councilwoman: “We need both” options

Under the proposal from Peak Consulting, the process would include public engagement, scoping, analysis of alternatives, environmental effects and possible mitigation.

During the March meeting, council President Amanda Sandoval asked how the airport arrived at the eye-bulging $15 million price tag for the contract. Morrissey responded that officials looked at similar projects to create that estimate, but the project may not take the full five years allotted.

Peak Consulting didn’t respond to a request for comment on the contract Monday.

The contract would include the amount of design work needed to satisfy the NEPA process, typically to the 30% level. It also includes an option for the firm to design the entire project.

Advertisement

If city officials ultimately decide to widen the road, the airport would likely pay for the majority of the cost and about a third would be paid for by other entities, possibly including the Colorado Department of Transportation, Washington said. The Federal Aviation Administration, though, has said it won’t contribute.

The study contract hit bumps earlier this year when council members’ questions about the proposal went so long in a committee meeting that a vote on it had to be postponed.

Council members said they’ve gotten hundreds of emails on the topic.

In an email to her constituents, many of whom take Peña for non-airport travel, Gilmore urged them to show up to a council general public comment session to support the study. In a suggested script, she encouraged them to focus on the impact for neighbors of the road.

“This shouldn’t be a black and white issue. Our only options shouldn’t be widen a road or build out our train system,” according to her email. “We need both.”

Advertisement

The council will consider the resolution during its regular meeting Tuesday, which begins at 3:30 p.m.

Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.



Source link

Advertisement

Denver, CO

Suspects sought in Denver shooting that killed teen, wounded 3 others

Published

on

Suspects sought in Denver shooting that killed teen, wounded 3 others


Denver police are searching for suspects in a Saturday night parking lot shooting that killed a 16-year-old and wounded three men, at least one of whom is not expected to survive, according to the agency.

Officers responded to the shooting in the 10100 block of East Hampden Avenue about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, near where East Hampden intersects South Galena Street, according to an alert from the Denver Police Department.

Police said a group of people had gathered in a parking lot on the edge of the city’s Kennedy neighborhood to celebrate the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro when the shooting happened.

Paramedics took one victim to a hospital, and two others were taken to the hospital in private vehicles, police said. A fourth victim, identified by police as 16-year-old William Rodriguez Salas, was dropped off near Iliff Avenue and South Havana Street, where he died from his wounds.

Advertisement

At least one of the three victims taken to hospitals — a 26-year-old man, a 29-year-old man and a 33-year-old man — is not expected to survive, police said Tuesday. One man was in critical condition Sunday night, one was in serious condition and one was treated for a graze wound and released.



Source link

Continue Reading

Denver, CO

Denver’s flavored vape ban sends customers across city lines

Published

on

Denver’s flavored vape ban sends customers across city lines


The new year in Colorado brought new restrictions for people who vape in Denver. As of January 1, a voter-approved ban on flavored nicotine products is now in effect in Denver, prohibiting the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and vaping products within city limits.

Just outside the Denver border, vape shops say they’re already feeling the ripple effects.

Advertisement

CBS


At Tokerz Head Shop in Aurora, located about a block and a half from the Denver city line, owner Gordon McMillon says customers are beginning to trickle in from Denver.

“I was in shock it passed, to be honest,” McMillon said. “Just because of how many people vape in Denver. But we’re hoping to take care of everybody that doesn’t get their needs met over there anymore.”

One of those customers is Justin Morrison, who lives in the Denver area and vapes daily. He stopped by the Aurora shop a day after the ban went into place.

Morrison says the ban won’t stop him from vaping. It will just change where he buys his products.

Advertisement

“I’m going to have to come all the way to Aurora to get them,” he said. “It’s pretty inconvenient. I smoke flavored vapes every day.”

The goal of the ban, according to public health advocates, is to reduce youth vaping.

Morrison said flavored vapes helped him quit smoking cigarettes, an argument frequently raised by adult users and vape retailers who oppose flavor bans.

“It helped tremendously,” he said. “I stopped liking the flavor of cigarettes. The taste was nasty, the smell was nasty. I switched all the way over to vapes, and it helped me stop smoking cigarettes completely.”

McMillon worries bans like Denver’s could push some former smokers back to cigarettes.

Advertisement

“If they can’t get their vapes, some will go back to cigarettes, for sure,” he said. “I’ve asked people myself, and it’s about 50-50.”

While McMillon acknowledges it will bring more business to shops outside Denver, he says the ban wasn’t something he wanted.

“Even if it helps me over here in Aurora, I’m against it,” he said. “I feel like adults should have the rights if they want to vape or not.”

More than 500 retailers in Denver removed their flavored products. For many, they accounted for the majority of their sales. Denver’s Department of Public Health and Environment says it will begin issuing fines and suspensions to retailers found selling flavored tobacco products.

Both McMillan and Morrison say they’re concerned the ban could spread to other cities. For now, Aurora vape shops remain legal alternatives for Denver customers.

Advertisement

Despite the added drive, Morrison says quitting isn’t on the table.

“It’s an addiction. You’re going to find a way to get it. That’s why I don’t see the point of banning it here,” Morrison said.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Denver, CO

Planning to begin in Denver for American Indian Cultural Embassy

Published

on

Planning to begin in Denver for American Indian Cultural Embassy


Denver will be the site of the United States’ first-ever American Indian Cultural Embassy.

Funding for the project was approved by Denver voters in the Vibrant Denver Bond measure.

The vision is for the embassy to welcome Native people back home to Colorado.

On the snowy day of CBS News Colorado’s visit, Rick Williams observed the buffalo herd at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

Advertisement

“These animals are sacred to us,” said Williams, who is Oglala Lakota and Cheyenne. “This was our economy. They provided everything we needed to live a wonderful lifestyle.”

Rick Williams, president of People of the Sacred Land and a leader in the effort to build an American Indian Cultural Embassy, looks at buffalo at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

CBS


Williams is president of People of the Sacred Land and a leader in the effort to build an American Indian Cultural Embassy.

Advertisement

“‘Homeland’ is a special term for everybody, right?” Williams asked. “But for people who were alienated, for American Indians who were alienated from Colorado, they don’t have a home, they don’t have a home community that you can go to, this is it. And I think that’s sad.”

The First Creek Open Space — near 56th and Peña, near the southeast corner of the Arsenal — is owned by the City and County of Denver and is being considered for development of the embassy.

“To have a space that’s an embassy that would be government-to-government relations on neutral space,” said Denver City Councilmember Stacie Gilmore, who represents northeast Denver District 11. “But then also supporting the community’s economic development and their cultural preservation.”

stacie-gilmore-first-creek-open-space.png

Denver City Councilmember Stacie Gilmore speaks from the First Creek Open Space in northeast Denver about the possibility of building the United States’ first-ever American Indian Cultural Embassy at the site.

CBS

Advertisement


Gilmore said $20 million from the Vibrant Denver Bond will support the design and construction of the center to support Indigenous trade, arts, and education.

“That sense of connection and that sense of place and having a site is so important if you’re going to welcome people back home,” added Gilmore.

“What a great treasure for people in Colorado,” Williams said as he read the interpretive sign at the wildlife refuge.

rick-at-interpretive-sign-arsenal.png

Rick Williams, president of People of the Sacred Land and a leader in the effort to build an American Indian Cultural Embassy, reads a sign at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

CBS

Advertisement


He said the proposed location makes perfect sense: “Near the metropolitan area, but not necessarily in the metropolitan area, we would love to be near buffalo. We would love to be in an area where there’s opportunities for access to the airport.”

The Denver March Powwow could one day be held at the embassy.

Williams dreams of expanding the buffalo herd nearby and having the embassy teach future generations Indigenous skills and culture.

The concept for the embassy is one of the recommendations emerging from the Truth, Restoration, and Education Commission, a group of American Indian leaders in Colorado who began to organize four years ago to study the history of Native Americans in our state.

And the work is just beginning.

Advertisement

“We have to think about, ‘how do we maintain sustainability and perpetuity of a facility like this?’” Williams said. “So there’s lots of issues that are going to be worked on over the next year or so.”

Williams added, “One day our dreams are going to come true, and those tribes are going to come, and we’re going to have a big celebration out here. We’re going to have a drum, and we’re going to sing honor songs, and we’re going to have just the best time ever welcoming these people back to their homeland.”

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s staff sent the following statement:

“We are excited about the passing of the Vibrant Denver Bond and the opportunity it creates to invest in our city’s first American Indian Cultural Embassy. We are committed to working hand-in-hand with the Indigenous community to plan and develop the future embassy, and city staff have already been invited to listen and engage with some of our local American Indian groups, like the People of the Sacred Land. We are not yet at the stage of formal plans, but we are excited to see the momentum of this project continue.”

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending