This past Tuesday, Arvada City Council approved one of the most significant developments in Jeffco history. The bulldozers will plow under 4,000 untouched acres on the southern edge of Rocky Flats. This new area, Candela's, is directly down-wind from Rocky Flats. Most people would be nuts to raise their children near this area, but some people are fools. Candela's includes 1,400 new homes, and about 70% of the density is residential. This level of residential density is quite questionable as homes are a poor tax base.

Many Arvada citizens attended the meeting Tuesday and spoke in opposition, but Arvada council turned a blind eye. It was apparent to anyone in attendance that most of the council had already made up their minds long before the meeting started. Councilman Mark Williams was especially animated and enthusiastic in his support.

Interestingly, Arvada has allowed this development to move forward without a water source. The developer has only secured about 25 percent of the water needed. The developer is apparently trying to buy more. (Good luck. Denver needs every drop.) In addition, the developer agreement is perpetual, meaning the developer can take decades to finish the project. This new development will obviously bring more traffic and congestion to Arvada's roads, and this is part of Arvada's motivation for a beltway.

The problem for beltway proponents is there is no money. The state has recently pulled its financial support. The only way Arvada can build a beltway is to build it as a toll road, but is this realistic? The failure of the Northwest Parkway Toll Road in Broomfield hasn't exactly been a success due to a lack of traffic and revenue. Broomfield citizens invested $400 millionin their toll road, and later found itself upside-down. They were forced to lease their toll road to a foreign company for 99 years. They also had to sign a non-compete agreement that bars them from improving their own public streets. This is how toll roads work, and to think this couldn't happen again is naive.

Jefferson County Commissioner Kevin McCasky, Arvada and Broomfield are now supporting a "highway authority" to subsidize the cost of a new toll road. Politicians won't admit it, but private capital will only pay a small part of the $800 millionneeded, leaving county taxpayers to pick up the balance. It apparently hasn't occurred to the politicians that if the toll road was viable, it wouldn't need a tax subsidy. Economics don't lie. This proposed toll road is bad business, is economically unviable and offers little benefit to reduce congestion.

The best plan to improve mobility and reduce congestion s to improve SH93 and Indiana/McIntyre to four lanes. This plan provides free north/south connections, and essentially connects the beltway, but at half the cost. The Northwest Quadrant Feasibility Study (2000) and the County Transportation Plan (1989) came to this same conclusion. In addition, voters in 1989 rejected a beltway tax for the same reason - it's not needed.

For those folks who have an aversion to the facts and insists a beltway is necessary, I would say maybe we just can't afford it. We don't even have enough money to maintain the roads and bridges we have. To ask Jeffco taxpayers to subsidize a toll road is absurd.

Digging a little deeper, the real motivation to build this toll road is greed. The get-rich-quick scheme includes land development around Jeffco airport and western Arvada (as noted above). Arvada's toll road is outrageously expensive, and creates more neighborhood congestion as drivers avoid the toll.

Over the years, Arvada has made some very questionable development decisions. This new western development next to Rocky Flats, and their lust for a toll road is a new low. However, if politicians believe taxpayers will subsidize a privately-leased toll road, they are drinking way too much beltway Kool Aid.