Economy & Economic Development  August 24, 2016

Feds nix Estes Park’s grant request for U.S. 36 work, cite Loop opposition

ESTES PARK — Vocal opposition to a plan to turn downtown Estes Park streets into a one-way traffic “loop” to ease congestion has yet to derail the idea. But now it has cost the tourist town a $10 million federal grant for a different project — improvements to a major highway leading from the town center to Rocky Mountain National Park.

The town had applied for the grant through the Federal Lands Access Program (FLAP), a project designed to help state and local governments ease tourist travel to and from national parks, forests and monuments. The money would have funded road and trail enhancements along busy U.S. Highway 36 — locally known as Moraine Avenue — between Crags Drive south of downtown and Mary’s Lake Road, near the park’s headquarters and its Beaver Meadows entrance.

News of that grant’s rejection came in emails sent last week by federal officials to Estes Park Public Works Director Greg Muhonen. The emails praised the project and the town’s application — one of 31 vying for $66 million in FLAP grants for construction from 2019 to 2022 — but indicated that a major reason Estes Park’s request had been turned down was public opposition to the proposed Downtown Estes Loop. That project already has won tentative approval for another FLAP grant worth $13 million.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Ways to thank a caregiver

If you have a caregiver or know someone who has been serving as a primary caregiver, March 3rd is the day to reach out and show them how much they are valued!

One of the emails, from Morgan Malley, lead transportation planner for the Central Federal Lands Access Program, explained the rejection by the Colorado FLAP Programming Decisions Committee.

“In regards to your project, specifically, though the application was complete, well-written and provided multi-modal access to a high-use recreation site, the PDC had the major concern of which I’ve paraphrased as: High risk for the Colorado FLAP program given the public opposition and lack of consistent local support for the current FLAP project,” Malley wrote.

“I actually appreciate their candor,” Town Administrator Frank Lancaster told BizWest on Wednesday. “If I were in their shoes, I’d probably think the same thing. I kind of expected it, but I didn’t expect the candor about it.”

Loop proponent Charley Dickey, a business consultant who owns a downtown business, Rustic Mountain Charm at 135 E. Elkhorn Ave., agreed.

“Why would you put your hands in boiling water a second time? There’s been so much outcry on the Loop going through town. I’m sure it had an impact, although (the Moraine Avenue project) has considerably less problems with it,” Dickey said. “It was just another piece of the puzzle to help.

“Until we get this first piece of the puzzle,” he said, referring to the Loop, “I think we’re going to be hard-pressed to get any money.”

The rejected grant would have paid for widening that stretch of U.S. 36, adding a center turn lane and constructing separate bike lanes and sections of sidewalk that don’t exist now.

In another email to Muhonen, Chris Longley, a Central Federal Lands Access Program manager, encouraged the town to submit more applications for FLAP grants. However, because each FLAP call for projects covers three years, the next FLAP call probably wouldn’t come before 2019 — assuming the federal program still has money then.

Dickey said that means the improvements to Moraine won’t be done “until they have another call for projects or we have another funding source. But at least we’ve got the project in the can and we know what it would cost.”

The $13 million FLAP grant for the proposed Loop is in the can as well, Lancaster said. “We have it. There’s no question the money is secure,” he said. “These are two separate projects. They happen to touch each other and happen to be from the same funding source, but they are not related. We still have full funding for the Loop, It’s still on the track it was before, for the board to look at as soon as the final NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) report is out,”

The idea to turn downtown Estes Park streets into a one-way couplet to ease summer traffic jams has triggered fierce debate and division among residents, business owners and town officials. Besides easing tourist-traffic gridlock, Loop proponents have said federal money for the project would pay for replacement of three of five bridges damaged during the flooding of 2013. If the bridges aren’t replaced, they said, the next federal floodplain designation could be expanded to include much of the downtown area, raising property owners’ insurance rates.

Loop opponents have countered that the plan would hurt their businesses by steering eastbound traffic leaving Rocky Mountain National Park along the designated route of U.S. 36 away from the shops along East Elkhorn Avenue, the main downtown commercial street, and disturbing the peace of homes and rental cottages along Riverside Drive, a parallel street to the south that would be turned into eastbound U.S. 36 under the Loop plan. Some opponents say adding shuttles and traffic cops and improving parking options and crosswalks downtown are better solutions, and have posted signs in their businesses to enlist tourists in their anti-Loop campaign.

The town in 2013 applied for the $13 million FLAP grant for the Loop because the project was seen as a way to improve access to the national park, which has entrances just west of Estes Park on U.S. Highways 36 and 34 and draws more than 3 million visitors a year. Federal officials had said the Loop option was the only acceptable alternative to receive the FLAP money, despite a report last year that said the project cost could be much higher because of a need to raise the level of some bridges and conduct river-channel work to meet floodplain requirements.

The town already has $4.2 million in hand for the project through a grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation’s Responsible Acceleration of Maintenance and Partnerships (RAMP) program.

The FLAP grant tentatively has been awarded as well, but acceptance by the town was pending the final environmental assessment as part of the NEPA study, a process that’s triggered when a federal agency develops a proposal such as the Loop to fund. The assessment was to study the impacts to the community if the one-way couplet plan were to move forward or if no action is taken.

The environmental assessment was issued July 5 and the public had a month to comment on it. “The consultant is reviewing all the comments, and we expect to be hearing from them any time,” Lancaster said. “Any responses CFL wants to make, they’ll put that in. The NEPA study will then go to the Town Board. They want to have another special meeting, and they’ll decide what are the next steps. Do we continue, do we stop, do we put it to a vote?”

Mayor Todd Jirsa campaigned to put the Loop to a public vote when he ran for office in the April municipal election.

“They’ve authorized me to set up the meeting, but I don’t know the date because I don’t know when the (final NEPA) report will come out. So it’ll probably be late September or early October.”

If the town board or Estes Park voters decide against going ahead with the Loop, Lancaster said earlier this summer, the town would lose out on the $13 million FLAP grant and also have to reimburse the feds for the costs associated with studying the project thus far — probably around $600,000.

The outcome is anyone’s guess.

“I did a survey of almost 1,000 people and it was almost 50-50,” Dickey said. “But this summer, traffic congestion was horrendous again. A group of people went to the chief of police just yesterday and said, ‘What do we do about the congestion?’

“Whatever happens, we need to try to create a community program to help people feel more welcome,” Dickey said. “We’re all about tourism. We’d damn well engage or we shouldn’t be living here.”

ESTES PARK — Vocal opposition to a plan to turn downtown Estes Park streets into a one-way traffic “loop” to ease congestion has yet to derail the idea. But now it has cost the tourist town a $10 million federal grant for a different project — improvements to a major highway leading from the town center to Rocky Mountain National Park.

The town had applied for the grant through the Federal Lands Access Program (FLAP), a project designed to help state and local governments ease tourist travel to and from national parks, forests and monuments. The money would have funded road…

Dallas Heltzell
With BizWest since 2012 and in Colorado since 1979, Dallas worked at the Longmont Times-Call, Colorado Springs Gazette, Denver Post and Public News Service. A Missouri native and Mizzou School of Journalism grad, Dallas started as a sports writer and outdoor columnist at the St. Charles (Mo.) Banner-News, then went to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before fleeing the heat and humidity for the Rockies. He especially loves covering our mountain communities.
Sign up for BizWest Daily Alerts