Neighbors concerned about new arterial street

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

It's "déja vu all over again." While Fort Collins is busy planning for growth in the Mountain Vista Subarea in northeast Fort Collins, neighbors are complaining that a new arterial there could become a truck route.

The truck route issue was a hot one 10 years ago, when the city proposed moving State Highway 14 from Mulberry Street to a realigned Vine Drive. With that change, the truck route would have also moved to Vine. People in the Lindenwood and the Andersonville/Alta Vista neighborhoods waged a battle against this plan and were successful in halting the project.

This time, there's no talk of an official truck route change, but folks are concerned that a new arterial will become a de facto truck route just the same. The new east-west arterial would run between College Avenue and Timberline Road, beginning at a point between Vine Drive and Conifer Street. It would connect with Mountain Vista Drive, which in turn connects with Interstate 25.

The city estimates that work on the first segment of this street could begin in five to seven years.

The city council will look at the Mountain Vista plan at a June 9 work session. The plan will be heard by the transportation board on June 17 and by the planning and zoning board on June 18. The council is scheduled to vote on the plan July 7. The new arterial is just part of this plan, which also contains recommendations for land use in the area.

Much of the land is slated for residential development, and that's where Lindenwood residents see a problem.

"Our concern is that the city will be moving trucks from downtown and they'll go through residential neighborhoods," said Matthew Majoros.

Majoros and his wife, Kandace, along with others in the Lindenwood neighborhood, have suggested installing design features that would discourage truck traffic, such as tight roundabouts or several hard turns.

Transportation planner Matt Wempe said that roundabouts, intersection controls and lower speed limits will be considered as development in the area proceeds. However, he said, any of these measures must be compatible with an efficient transportation system.

Majoros noted that some long-haul truckers already use Vine Drive to get to College Avenue. These drivers generally continue on to Laramie, Wyo. on U.S. Highway 287. Adding a new arterial, he said, "will just make it easier" for truckers to skip the official truck route on SH 14 and go through a residential area.

A new arterial will be quite attractive to truckers, he said, because compared with SH 14 it will have fewer stoplights and no railroad crossings.

The couple cites several concerns with long-haul diesel trucks using a new arterial street through residential neighborhoods. They worry about noise pollution and air quality issues, and that the arterial, if it's not designed as a truck bypass, will begin to deteriorate more quickly than it should. In addition, they are concerned about school children walking to Tavelli Elementary from the Andersonville/Alta Vista neighborhoods, because they will have an additional big street to cross.

Another complaint, said Kandace Majoros, is that city meetings about the new subarea plan have often been changed or cancelled on short notice. "It's been frustrating," she said.

There are already east-west arterials at Mulberry Street and Conifer Street, and the couple contends that another is not needed. Wempe, however, said that projected traffic volumes for the area justify having a third arterial in the area.

"It's a connection for the entire community," he said.