Economy revives Mason Corridor

By Dan MacArthur
Fossil Creek Current

The Mason Corridor is back again and moving with renewed momentum, thanks to an influx of funding and public interest.

Actually, the corridor concept never went away, although some may have erroneously thought so after voters twice rejected transportation tax proposals to finance it.

The $68 million project remains an unfunded part of Fort Collins' transportation master plan. It calls for creating a 5.5-mile "backbone" traversing the city's core from Cherry Street to south of Harmony Road. The corridor would be integrated with all other modes of transportation including vehicles, mass transit, existing freight trains, bicycles, feet and commuter rail or other future transit technologies.

The goal is to reduce traffic congestion while making it quicker and easier to access jobs, shopping, entertainment, dining and housing located along the corridor's route bordering the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks.

"Very seldom do you get a corridor through town that goes where the people go," said Tim Johnson, a long-time advocate of the project and recently term-limited member of the city transportation board.

Passage of Referendum C, authorizing the state to retain more tax revenues, gave the corridor project new life. The project recently received two transit grants totaling $8.5 million from the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Of that, $4.5 million will go toward linking Colorado State University and the downtown via bus rapid transit, creating a link for commuters, visitors and CSU students, staff and faculty between those two popular destinations. The remainder is earmarked for a southern transit center beyond Harmony and west of College. It will serve local and regional transit operations including service to and from Loveland.

Originally called the Mason Street Transportation Corridor, the project now has been rebranded as the Mason Corridor: More than Transportation. The new name, according to senior transportation planner Kathleen Bracke, reflects the growing realization that the project also can serve as a vehicle for economic development along the corridor.

She said developers increasingly are approaching the city with proposals for "transit-oriented development" - more urban, pedestrian-friendly projects with greater density and mixed residential and commercial uses. As a result, Bracke said, the city council last year adopted a land-use overlay for the entire length of corridor. She stressed that it does not change the underlying zoning but facilitates and encourages such transit-oriented development based entirely on choice and market forces.

This backbone's central nervous system bears the similarly stylish moniker of the Mason Express, or MAX bus rapid transit. The sleek, alternative-fueled buses would travel on a fixed guideway for most of the length of the corridor. Vehicle traffic still would be permitted on Mason Street and McClelland Drive.

The buses would transport passengers to stations at Harmony, Troutman Parkway, Horsetooth, Swallow, Drake, Prospect, University, Laurel, Mulberry, Olive, Mountain, LaPorte and the Downtown Transit Center at Cherry. Those stations are expected to become the catalyst for surrounding transit-oriented development. Departing every 10 or 15 minutes, transportation planners maintain the buses would travel twice as fast as vehicles on College Avenue.

An associated pedestrian and bike path would parallel the MAX. The 3.5-mile segment from the Spring Creek Trail to the Fossil Creek Trail south of Harmony has been completed already with revenues from the Building Community Choices sales tax extension approved by voters a decade ago, as well as funds from the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization, Great Outdoors Colorado and CDOT.

The city additionally received a grant from CDOT and the MPO to construct a new pedestrian/bicycle trail under the railroad tracks. It will connect the Whole Foods/University Mall shopping center to the Natural Resources Research Center and CSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

CDOT also funded engineering to extend a trail north to Laurel Street. Now the problem, as always, remains securing the cash to complete the rest. But Bracke expressed confidence, especially given the state's $8.5 million contribution to prime the pump. That, combined with $600,000 from the Downtown Development Authority and some $4 million in additional funds from the city, would provide the 20 percent local match required to receive a Federal Transit Authority grant for the remaining $54 million.

Given the federal agency's new program making transit funds available to smaller communities, Bracke said she believes the city has a much better chance to snag a grant than when it was previously competing with major metro areas. "That's what opened the door for us to pursue federal funding," she said.

That grant application is scheduled for submission this summer, following completion of preliminary engineering and an environmental assessment.