John Scarffe, Boulder County. The Boulder County Planning Commission approved an application to construct an addition to Fire Station #2 at 7761 Overland Road during a regular meeting on March 20, 2019, at 1:30 p.m. in the Commissioners’ Hearing Room. The commission also elected officers and heard an update on the county’s transportation master pan.

The commission elected Lieschen Gargano as chair, Ann Goldfarb, vice-chair, and Sam Libby as second vice-chair. Boulder County Staff Planner Summer Frederick introduced the Lefthand Fire Protection District request to construct a 2,085-square-foot addition with a 240-square-foot new office and Incident Command Room, a new fire apparatus bay at 1,200 square feet and a 645-square-feet storage area.

The building is located on an approximately 0.64-acre parcel at 7761 Overland Road, on the south side of Overland Drive, about 1.8 miles east of its intersection with Peak to Peak Highway (State Highway 72), in Section 22, Township 2N, Range 72W. It is zoned in the Forestry (F) Zoning District, and the Fire District owns the property.

It is in a wildlife and open stream corridor, Frederick said. The fire apparatus bay and office will connect the existing structure to the new bay. The Fire Protection District is a state agency, so they are only asking if this addition is in line with the county’s comprehensive plan.

The building will be visible from Overland Road. Building permits are required, and the construction has to meet county codes.

The proposed addition will facilitate the Fire Protection District’s response to the area, as well as provide space for enhanced response during a wildfire event, according to staff. As clarified by the district’s website, Station #2 is one of four facilities that serve the entire Lefthand Fire Protection District.

The Boulder County Transportation Department reviewed the application materials and noted documentation of an access easement allowing the Fire Protection District to utilize the driveway that extends from Overland Drive to the property owned by the Bureau of Land Management.

Transportation staff also noted that the slope located on the eastern boundary appears to be unstable, and they encouraged the applicant to work with the BLM to implement measures to mitigate erosion and stabilize the slope. The requirement for an Access Improvement and Maintenance Agreement (AIMA) and Access Permit was also stated in the referral response.

Boulder County Public Health – Environmental Division – reviewed the application materials and noted that a permit has been issued for the installation of a vault, but that the vault has not been installed to-date. Additionally, heavy equipment should be restricted from the surface of the vault during construction, and caution should be exercised to prevent damage to components.

Boulder County Wildfire reviewed the application materials and noted Wildfire Mitigation is required. Boulder County Parks and Open Space and Xcel Energy responded and noted no conflict. The Natural Resource planner did not find any issues.

Staff recommended the Planning Commission conditionally approve the request subject to 13 conditions, and the commission approved the request.
Project Manager Stacey Proctor introduced the Boulder County Transportation Department’s updates of the county’s transportation master plan (TMP) to reflect new demographic and travel data and trends as well as a more in-depth analysis of emerging challenges. The TMP update has developed draft recommendations to get feedback from the public.

Activities to date include development of a State of the System Report, an online public survey, data analysis, development of draft recommendations and public and stakeholder outreach that has included public meetings, news releases and social media posts.

Staff presented information for discussion purposes only; no action was requested. In 2012, Boulder County adopted its first TMP, which is based on a 25-year planning horizon and guides multimodal transportation system activities and investments in unincorporated Boulder County, recognizing the system’s important role in enabling travel between local communities and within the region.

The five key strategies in the 2012 TMP are based on the vision and goals in the Boulder County Comprehensive Plan and are to develop a Multimodal Transportation System, create the Complete Trip, invest in Key Transportation Corridors, increase accessibility and enhance Mountain Area Connections.

In the five years since the original Transportation Master Plan was developed, many changes have taken place. Demographics continue to change, and now have electric vehicles and ride sharing. Boulder County showed resiliency to recover from the 2013 flood, and they are doing a separate study on how they can be more resilient.

Staff started working on the plan update in August and have been doing a lot of analysis to decide on recommendations. Outreach completed includes three public meetings and an online survey with 2,000 responses.

They have reached out to other stakeholders throughout the county and neighboring counties. On March 21, 2019 they had a joint meeting with city of Boulder and the University of Colorado and will do something for the mountain communities as well as post progress on the website.

Staff conducted a data analysis on bicycle traffic stress with four levels from the least amount, with bikes separated from traffic, and up to four, which is high-stress and only the most fearless would feel comfortable cycling on those streets and highways.

Most of those in Boulder County are a three or four with no way to get between communities on a bike. Staff’s recommendation is to create a network of more low-stress routes.

Another concern is “How do we get people from where they live to where they work?” Due to lack of affordable housing, people move further away and have to drive farther to work. What’s implicated from 143,000 trips daily by 2040 back and forth? Traffic will increase 100 percent coming from Larimer and Weld County, Frederick said.

George Gerstle, Transportation Department director, who was attending his last meeting and is retiring, said one of the main philosophies of the plan is moving people from one community to the other and not just moving cars.

The county will need to explore options beyond RTD, which is having financial struggles, and the county can’t rely on RTD for the expansion of services. This is underscored by increasing ridership from Weld and Larimer counties, he said.

They also are working with RTD on an Ecopass discount card and a youth pass program to increase ridership. Once you get off the bus, you have to get to your final destination, which is a barrier to using public transportation, so they are working on finding good ways to move people from the bus, Gerstle said.

Staff doesn’t intend to add any general-purpose lanes on major roads to maintain the special character of our rural areas and recognize that, when we do have congestion, the primary congested point is on the intersections, so addressing them is the most efficient way to improve because most accidents occur at the intersections, Gerstle said.

Instead they plan to add bypass lanes, turn lanes, some center lanes and shoulders and improve intersections for pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles. Primary areas for work include Highway 119, the diagonal highway from Boulder to Longmont; Highways 42, 7, 287, 93, 66, 52 and South Boulder Road.

Mobility in the mountains is a challenge to Ward and Jamestown, and maintaining the roads is very expensive, Gerstle said. They received a grant for partnerships for shuttles to high demand recreational destinations, such as the Hessie shuttle above Nederland, and they would like to explore those kinds of services.

The biggest challenge is funding, Gerstle said. Revenue has gone up about 4 percent per year, but construction costs have gone up 5 to 7 percent. For basic needs, Boulder County is $37 million short, and they only have about half of what they need. They are looking at a public improvement district approved by voters or a tax increase.

The grand total needed is $2,940 million with additional funding of $171.8 million for a gap of $2,318.20 million. Staff plans to participate in public and stakeholder meetings and get feedback on draft recommendations from March to April 2019 and will have a draft and final transportation master plan document in May to July.

For more information go to https://www.bouldercounty.org/transportation/plans-and-projects/transportation-master-plan/transportation-master-plan-update-public-involvement/.

(Originally published in the March 28, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)