The El Paso County Transportation Department held open houses in three locations in the unincorporated area of the county the last week of April to present their most recent draft of the Major Transportation Corridors Plan, which extends through 2040.Victoria Chavez, the county’s principal transportation planner, said the department has been working on the update for the past year, and now they need additional public comment.The county hired LSA Associates Inc., of Ft. Collins, Colo., to prepare the update.”Growth guides the infrastructure investments in the Major Transportation Corridors Plan,” said Everett Bacon from LSA Associates.New growth causes new travel in the future; so, as travel accumulates on the roadways, there will be new roadway needs, Bacon said.In the Falcon area, there are three new road projects:
- the connection of Stapleton Road to Briargate Parkway on the west and to Curtis Road on the east
- the construction of Banning Lewis Parkway between Dublin Road and Stapleton Road
- the realignment of Peyton Highway where it intersects with Falcon Highway
Falcon Highway is a candidate for widening several miles east of Highway 24, and Eastonville Road is a candidate for paving north of Stapleton Road.In Falcon and Black Forest, several roads are candidates for rural county road upgrades.The draft 2040 MTCP is based on growth projections provided by the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments, Bacon said.In 2010, unincorporated El Paso County had 61,950 households. By 2040, PPACG’s growth model projects an additional 84,150 households, for a total of 146,100.”That’s a compound annual growth rate of 2.9 percent, nearly double the county’s growth rate as a whole,” Bacon said.Without the completion of the projects identified by the draft 2040 MTCP, maps show congestion occurring in the Falcon area on Woodmen Road, Falcon Highway and Garrett Road.In Black Forest, congestion will occur on Hodgen, Vollmer, Burgess and Shoup roads.Chavez said the PPACG’s data model has not been adjusted to reflect changes in future development plans. For example, the recently upheld Upper Black Squirrel Creek Groundwater Management District’s rule preventing new agreements for transporting water within or outside the basin could lead to more rural-residential development and less urban development.Chavez said her hands are tied – the county is required to use the PPACG data.But if development doesn’t happen, the roads won’t be built, she said.The PPACG model predicts an employment growth rate in the unincorporated areas of the county of 2.9 percent. Even with that high growth rate compared to the rest of the county, the majority of jobs will still be in Colorado Springs in 2040, Bacon said. Thus, more people will be driving to work.Bacon said the improvements identified in the draft 2040 MTCP total as much as $869 million.The county is projected to provide $363 million in funding, and developers will contribute $180 million to $323 million; leaving a $40 million to $183 million shortfall, he said. The figures do not count the loss of $200 million in roadwork the Colorado Department of Transportation recently announced, Bacon said.Because of the state budget shortfall, CDOT has withdrawn funding for projects scheduled for completion by 2040 on I-25 and highways 24, 83, 94 and 115.The 2040 MTCP team would like to hear ideas from the public regarding the shortfall, Bacon said.Should the county help the state fund improvements on critical roads like Highway 24? Could the county raise more revenue, or should the county do nothing and build less, he asked.Ideas for securing more revenue include instituting a transportation maintenance fee, reauthorizing the capital portion of Pikes Peak Regional Transportation Authority that will expire in 2014, instituting a local vehicle registration fee or increasing the road and bridge tax on real property, Bacon said.There is still time to provide feedback on the 2040 MTCP before the plan is finalized, Chavez said.Black Forest resident and departing member of the county’s planning commission, Edward Bracken, didn’t wait to take the survey to provide his input.”First, I don’t think you’re adhering to the principals of the Black Forest Preservation Plan to keep this area rural in nature,” Bracken said. “Second, the north and east portions of Black Forest are already built out, and the two high-density projects are bankrupt, so there isn’t going to be any increased density. Third, your traffic count numbers and your projections of growth in this area are wrong.”To take the survey, visit http://2040mctp.com.
