POST OFFICE UPDATE

 

The US Postal Service is reportedly looking at two alternative locations in the Cherry Creek Area to replace the current one on Columbine Street.  The building owner reports that past weather damage necessitates termination of the lease because it is simply too expensive to repair a building which will be demolished soon anyway.

 

CAPITOL STEPS

 

Save October 11th for the Denver Cherry Creek Rotary Club's Capitol Steps event at the Paramount Theatre. Captial Steps is a troupe of former Congressional staffers turned comedians who travel the country satirizing the very people and places that once employed them. No politician is safe from their humor-- all political parties receive the same treatment. This election year should be particularly good.  For a taste of The Capitol Steps go to:

 

www.capsteps.com

 

DENVER CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT JEANNE ROBB

 

The  Denver City Council Elected Council Member Jeanne Robb as its new President.  Council Member Robb represents District 10 which includes the Capitol Hill, Country Club and Cherry Creek neighborhoods.

 

CHERRY CREEK NORTH BID CAPITAL IMPROVMENTS

 

DENVER LIVING STREETS INITIATIVE
 
The Cherry Creek Corridor in southeast Denver has been tapped as the location for one of very few in the nation long-term growth studies as a part of the EPA's Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Program.  A nationally renowned group of land use, urban design and transportation experts convened in Denver from July 30-August 2 in a Complete Streets Technical Workshop to "explore the potential application of Smart Growth principles" along the Cherry Creek Corridor from the Denver CBD to I-225.  The City of Denver's Community Planning and Development, and Public Works departments arranged for the corridor to serve as an "urban laboratory" in its Living Streets Initiative.
 
www.denvergov.org/Default.aspx?alias=www.denvergov.org/livingstreets

Some 60% of all vehicle trips in Denver originate outside the city and while the Southeast Light Rail (fka T-REX) provides significant mass transit capability, the corridor served by Parker Road/Leetsdale/Alameda/ Steele/1st Avenue/Speer Boulevard is one of the most congested routes into the city.  Real estate development along many of those streets, particularly southeast of Colorado Boulevard is dated and oriented to automobile traffic.  Redevelopment has been sporadic and often continues to be automobile oriented, in spite of the fact that the primary roadways are at or above capacity.  The study will examine alternatives for future development and redevelopment along the corridor to enable "complete streets" which accommodate solutions for mobility in the corridor.
 
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) division on Smart Growth awarded the City and County of Denver a Smart Growth Implementation Assistance (SGIA) grant in July 2007. The original grant application proposed to explore Smart Growth methodologies to improve transportation, land use and community design along the entire Downtown Cherry Creek Corridor. There will be two areas of focus along the corridor related to the US EPA SGIA grant: 
 

By 2030, Denver will add 145,000 households (a 30% increase) and nearly 200,000 jobs (a 37% increase). Today, Denver's roadway network accommodates 4 million daily person trips. This is expected to grow to 5.4 million by 2030. In 2030, 27% of the person-trips will originate in Douglas and Arapahoe Counties. This southeast quadrant generates the greatest transportation demand, now and in the future.
 
The growth anticipated within the city boundaries and within the region continually challenges the carrying capacity on urban thoroughfares linking jurisdictions. Increasing roadway capacity through the addition of lanes is not a sustainable option. To keep pace with future transportation demand Denver and its regional partners must find context-sensitive, complete street solutions. Underutilized land along the corridor presents development opportunity for each of four jurisdictions served by the Downtown-Cherry Creek thoroughfare.
 
With an enhanced transportation alternative that increases regional connectivity and the people-trip capacity of the corridor, there is opportunity for Main Street sections linking transit nodes. Compact, dense mixed-use redevelopment of corridor-adjacent land increases the economic health of the community. Physical health of the community improves when the built environment becomes a place that is conducive to walking, biking and commuting by transit. Enhanced mode choice reduces Vehicle Miles Traveled and congestion, and leads to a reduction in air toxics.
 
US EPA staff hired a team of nationally renowned consultants to work with the City's Living Streets Initiative team, elected officials and the community in the exploration and development of Smart Growth methodologies to improve transportation, land use and community design along the corridor.
 
The US EPA and the team of national consultants will document the process to synthesize, present and explain the workshop results including: findings from stakeholder meetings; a market overview; conceptual renderings; discuss how complete streets and smart growth concepts can meet citywide and stakeholder interests; and broadly discuss possible Denver specific implementation issues of these approaches.
 
The US EPA SGIA grant is a pilot study for a larger Denver citywide planning effort called the Living Streets Initiative (LSI). Over the next year, the City of Denver will bring national experts to this emerging conversation in Denver through partnerships with several agencies, organizations and jurisdictions including the following:
 
 

 
Over the next year analysts will conduct traffic, transit and market opportunity analysis, conduct a comprehensive public education and civic engagement process and develop collateral materials to communicate the results of the study so the city can process and perhaps implement suggestions provided by the study.  And incidentally, the Denver Daily News at

 

www.thedenverdailynews.com/article.php?aID=1329

 

reports about two transit studies along East Colfax Avenue examining "bus rapid transit" and streetcar or trolley options.  Bus rapid transit uses conventional busses giving them priority at traffic signals and other enhancements.  Streetcars have begun to see success in cities like Portland, Oregon.