Boulder County Planning Commission signs off on Diagonal projects

The Boulder County Planning Commission recommended to the Board of County Commissioners that they approve the CO 119 Safety and Mobility and Bikeway Projects (Docket SI-22-0002) at their March 15 meeting. These projects will provide Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and a bikeway on CO 119 (the Diagonal) between Boulder and Longmont.

This hearing was part of the Colorado “1041” process, which allows Boulder County to evaluate how county land use regulations apply to governmental projects. The commissioners present for the meeting were Mark Bloomfield (chair), Gavin McMillan (vice-chair), Ann Goldfarb, Sam Libby and Chris Whitney.

The partners in the projects are the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), the Regional Transportation District (RTD) and Boulder County. The partners worked together to create project plans that are at the 30% phase, meaning that they are 30% complete toward documents that will describe every detail of the project. The plan was reviewed by Boulder County staff as part of the 1041 process. Later in the project, plans that are 90% complete will be created but their approval is not part of the 1041 process.

Boulder County Planner Pete L’Orange provided the staff presentation of the plan and recommended 37 conditions for approval. Highlights from the presentation are:

• 1,970 notification cards were sent to property owners along the route. Many agencies were notified. A number of agencies did not respond, including the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad.

• The projects are expected to increase bus ridership by about 33% with a corresponding decrease in private cars on the Diagonal.

• Impacts to ground cover are expected to be “fairly minor,” L’Orange said. Some trees will be removed, but will be replaced one-for-one. Staff recommended but did not require that Russian Olive trees be removed whenever they are encountered. There is moderate to high potential for threatened or endangered species to occur in the area, which will be addressed.

• The bike path will go through a number of roadway underpasses. Some of those will be below the level of the water table. In those cases, active pumping and “underdrains” must be provided.

• Staff recognized that a number of members of the public have expressed concerns about accessing the bikeway at Niwot Road and have requested that the project be revised to include an underpass under the northbound lane of the Diagonal. "Staff would support that, staff finds that that would be beneficial, however it is outside the scope and funding," L’Orange said. Staff did recommend that grading and alignment be done as part of the projects in order to allow the underpass to be constructed in the future.

Stacy Proctor, Boulder County Project Manager in Community Planning & Permitting, provided an overview of the Bikeway Project which is a Boulder County project within the partnership. A Community Advisory Committee was created in 2021 and is wrapping up its work. They conducted extensive community engagement with meetings and events presented both in English and in Spanish.

Keith Schafer, CDOT Region 4 South Program Engineer, described CDOT’s role in planning changes in the roadway, intersections, RTD lanes and RTD stations. The most significant change will be at the Diagonal’s intersection with CO 52, where the lines of traffic directions will be separated by a new median, as they are north and south of the intersection.

Commissioner Libby asked why there will be a Park and Ride (PnR) at CO 52 since there are few residences nearby. Proctor responded that a study of multimodal transit had determined that IBM and the Boulder Tech Center are sufficient to call for a PnR, although a connecting multi-use path has yet to be designed. There was much discussion about the Airport Road/DIagonal intersection because there are plans to eliminate some of the turns in order to reduce the number of broadside crashes resulting from turning into traffic.

Several members of the public testified as well.

Vic Pizzo, who lives on Clover Creek Drive, talked about the CO 52 intersection saying, “I know originally there’d been other plans like having an overpass/underpass kind of thing and I still think that’s preferable.” Pizzo also talked about the impact that the changes at Airport Road would have on traffic on S. Fordham Street, which would become an alternative to Airport Road.

Gary Hodges, who served on the Longmont Transportation Advisory Board, also spoke about the original plan for a flyover for the CO 52 intersection. Talking about traffic signals, Hodges said, “I’d like you to consider letting Longmont time the traffic lights on the Diagonal,” because more Longmont residents commute to Boulder than the reverse.

Niwot resident Biff Warren talked about the need for a bike and pedestrian underpass for the northbound lane of the Diagonal at Niwot Road. Warren related how Sergeant Hill of the Colorado State Patrol spoke at the Niwot Local Improvement District Advisory Committee (LID) meeting and “mentioned that Niwot Road/119 intersection is the second most dangerous intersection in Boulder County, and yet we don’t have an underpass to get under that northbound lane of the Diagonal.” Warren disagreed with the county staff determination that an underpass to Niwot was outside the scope and funding of the $160M project, and asked that the conditions of approval be modified to include plans for an underpass to allow safe access to Niwot.

Niwot resident Cornelia Sawle, a member of the LID, also talked about the need for an underpass at Niwot Road. Sawle said, “The County’s plan to move the bus stop to the median will mean that every bus rider in either direction will have to cross the Diagonal.” Sawle also talked about, “... how the bike path will make it safer and I agree if you get on at either Boulder or Longmont and ride right through, but getting off at any place in between is much more dangerous.”

Donna Tucker, the owner for 37 years of an agriculture property west of Niwot, agreed with Warren and Sawle regarding the dangers at the intersection of Niwot Road and CO 119. Tucker also wanted to bring up “... the increased number of homeless camps up and down the Diagonal Highway.”

Joe Stasiac, who lives on Clover Creek Drive, spoke about the repeated effort of residents to raise awareness of the impact of changes at the Airport Road intersection on S. Fordham Street traffic. “What we had voiced, seeing that all the time, is if they cut down that road to only one direction, all that traffic is going to go to Fordham,” Stasiac said.

Commissioner Libby made the motion to approve the staff recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners. Commissioner Goldfarb offered a friendly amendment to advise the BOCC of the safety concerns that have been expressed. The motion was unanimously passed with the amendment. The matter will now proceed to a hearing before the Boulder County Commissioners.