Arvada and Jefferson County have sued Broomfield, saying that its 2020 withdrawal from an arrangement to develop the Jefferson Parkway — a single of the previous unfinished segments of the beltway encircling Denver — has designed finishing the $250 million project “impossible.”
“The completion of the Jefferson Parkway is not attainable with no Broomfield’s functionality,” the lawsuit asserts. “Broomfield’s actions toss the upcoming of the Jefferson Parkway into disarray and leave Arvada and Jefferson County no way to recoup the tens of millions of bucks in taxpayer contributions that have been expended on the job to day.”
The go well with, filed last week in Jefferson County District Courtroom, asks a judge to get Broomfield “to express to the (Jefferson Parkway Community Freeway Authority) the land and legal rights-of-way within just its jurisdiction vital to comprehensive the path of the Parkway.”
The Jefferson Parkway would join Broomfield to Point out Freeway 93 north of Golden, a 10-mile chunk of road that would virtually complete Denver’s beltway, at this time comprised of C-470, E-470 and the Northwest Parkway.
Arvada and Jefferson County, which collectively with Broomfield formed the highway authority 14 a long time back, are also demanding that Broomfield spend its share of expenditures related with undertaking preparation for the two 2018 and 2019, as perfectly as fees for “further soil sampling and tests.”
Broomfield pulled out of the authority in late February 2020, citing an elevated studying of plutonium discovered the preceding calendar year in the proposed path of the tollway as the main reason guiding its final decision to withdraw. The Jefferson Parkway would skirt the east facet of Rocky Flats Nationwide Wildlife Refuge, which was residence to a nuclear weapons producing plant all over the Chilly War.
“After that soil sample, I consider it would be irresponsible to move forward with this alignment,” Broomfield Councilman William Lindstedt said at the time.
A spokeswoman for Broomfield declined to remark Monday, expressing the city experienced however to be served with the complaint. Several attempts to access Monthly bill Ray, executive director of the Jefferson Parkway Community Freeway Authority, have been unsuccessful.
Arvada Mayor Marc Williams, who sits on the authority, mentioned he does not see the Jefferson Parkway as a “doomed undertaking.”
“If you look at the congestion on Indiana Avenue, Freeway 93 and the facet streets in our respective communities, I consider there is nevertheless a tremendous have to have for this parkway,” Williams stated.
He claimed he’s been in speak to with Broomfield officials in current days and has large hopes that the challenge of land commitment for the parkway can be resolved prior to a trial is scheduled.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that we can do that,” the mayor reported.
But if not, Arvada and Jefferson County say Broomfield is obligated to cover the costs that they have set into the tollway so considerably. According to the lawsuit, taxpayers have contributed nearly $16.8 million from 2008 to 2019. Arvada has set in the most, at nearly $7 million, whilst Jefferson County has contributed just more than $6.3 million.
Broomfield’s contributions complete nearly $3.5 million more than that time.
The undertaking has confronted sturdy headwinds from both environmentalists concerned that development could likely unearth plutonium from the aged Rocky Flats weapons facility and from Arvada residents who really do not want a highway jogging by their neighborhoods.
In 2019, one of a few firms in the running to establish the tollway dropped out, declaring the venture did not make money perception. Williams said the quantities can be operate again but first the corridor for the highway should be secured.
“We want to resolve this with Broomfield just before we can go out to the industry and continue even further,” he said.
