Arvada and Jefferson County have sued Broomfield, claiming that its 2020 withdrawal from an settlement to construct the Jefferson Parkway — one of many final unfinished segments of the beltway encircling Denver — has made finishing the $250 million challenge “not possible.”
“The completion of the Jefferson Parkway isn’t attainable with out Broomfield’s efficiency,” the lawsuit asserts. “Broomfield’s actions throw the way forward for the Jefferson Parkway into disarray and go away Arvada and Jefferson County no method to recoup the thousands and thousands of {dollars} in taxpayer contributions which have been expended on the challenge up to now.”
The go well with, filed final week in Jefferson County District Court docket, asks a decide to order Broomfield “to convey to the (Jefferson Parkway Public Freeway Authority) the land and rights-of-way inside its jurisdiction needed to finish the trail of the Parkway.”
The Jefferson Parkway would join Broomfield to State Freeway 93 north of Golden, a 10-mile chunk of highway that may almost full Denver’s beltway, at the moment comprised of C-470, E-470 and the Northwest Parkway.
Arvada and Jefferson County, which along with Broomfield shaped the freeway authority 14 years in the past, are additionally demanding that Broomfield pay its share of prices related to challenge preparation for each 2018 and 2019, in addition to prices for “additional soil sampling and testing.”
Broomfield pulled out of the authority in late February 2020, citing an elevated studying of plutonium found the earlier yr within the proposed path of the tollway because the chief purpose behind its resolution to withdraw. The Jefferson Parkway would skirt the east aspect of Rocky Flats Nationwide Wildlife Refuge, which was house to a nuclear weapons manufacturing plant all through the Chilly Struggle.
“After that soil pattern, I feel it could be irresponsible to maneuver ahead with this alignment,” Broomfield Councilman William Lindstedt mentioned on the time.
A spokeswoman for Broomfield declined to remark Monday, saying town had but to be served with the grievance. A number of makes an attempt to achieve Invoice Ray, govt director of the Jefferson Parkway Public Freeway Authority, have been unsuccessful.
Arvada Mayor Marc Williams, who sits on the authority, mentioned he doesn’t see the Jefferson Parkway as a “doomed challenge.”
“In case you take a look at the congestion on Indiana Avenue, Freeway 93 and the aspect roads in our respective communities, I feel there may be nonetheless an amazing want for this parkway,” Williams mentioned.
He mentioned he’s been involved with Broomfield officers in latest days and has excessive hopes that the difficulty of land dedication for the parkway might be resolved earlier than a trial is scheduled.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that we will try this,” the mayor mentioned.
But when not, Arvada and Jefferson County say Broomfield is obligated to cowl the prices that they’ve put into the tollway to this point. In line with the lawsuit, taxpayers have contributed almost $16.8 million from 2008 to 2019. Arvada has put in essentially the most, at almost $7 million, whereas Jefferson County has contributed simply over $6.3 million.
Broomfield’s contributions whole almost $3.5 million over that point.
The challenge has confronted sturdy headwinds from each environmentalists involved that building may doubtlessly unearth plutonium from the previous Rocky Flats weapons facility and from Arvada residents who don’t need a freeway working via their neighborhoods.
In 2019, certainly one of three companies within the working to construct the tollway dropped out, saying the challenge didn’t make monetary sense. Williams mentioned the numbers might be run once more however first the hall for the freeway should be secured.
“We have to resolve this with Broomfield earlier than we will exit to the market and proceed additional,” he mentioned.
