Truck issue routed back to voters

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

Like vehicles stuck in a roundabout, the truck route issue keeps coming back.

At a May 23 study session, the Fort Collins City Council decided to take the issue to the voters again, this time asking them to repeal a citizens' initiative passed in 1999. If repealed, it will free up transportation funds and open the way for a new truck route discussion.

"It's time to move forward and be done with it," said council member Karen Weitkunat, referring to the initiative. "We need to start fresh again."

The citizens' initiative, sponsored by the Council For a True Bypass, was developed in response to Fort Collins' efforts in the 1990s to create a truck route on Vine Drive. Most members of the citizen group live in the Lindenwood or the Buckingham/Andersonville neighborhoods, close to the proposed route. While the city council at the time ended up nixing the Vine Drive plan, the citizen group wanted to be sure that Vine wouldn't be brought up again.

To that end, CFTB drafted an initiative instructing Fort Collins to pursue a truck route north of the city's growth management area, in effect shutting down the Vine Drive option. The initiative, which voters approved, authorized funding to pursue that goal, of which about $1.6 million remains. Part of the council's goal in going back to voters is to free up that money for other transportation projects, perhaps in the northeast sector of the city.

CFTB stated in an April 21 letter to the city council that it doesn't want the initiative changed, and some city council members were reluctant to try to repeal the 1999 initiative without their support. However, said Weitkunat, "I don't think we're going to get them to buy into anything we're going to do."

Mayor Doug Hutchinson said it's important to put the truck route issue back on the table to help to solve the traffic problem in downtown Fort Collins. "Having that kind of traffic down Jefferson Street is at cross purposes to what we're trying to do with Old Town's redevelopment," he said, since it creates noise and discourages pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

Hutchinson noted that a truck bypass around Fort Collins is listed on the Regional Transportation Plan, but it's in a very low priority position. "We as a council can work with the county to elevate the priority of a bypass in the RTP," he suggested. "It's important that it can someday happen," he added, even if funding isn't available for 10 or 15 years.

The problem with getting a bypass considered at all by state and federal agencies has been the restrictive wording of the citizen initiative. The initiative dictates that a truck route must be in a certain geographic area. However, any road project requesting state and federal funding must go through a federal permitting process, and that process requires studying all possible options for the roadway. Thus, if the initiative stands, it will be impossible for Fort Collins to ask for state or federal help in building a truck route around downtown.

Council member Ben Manvel said voters may support a repeal if they understand there won't be a bypass without it.

Other truck route options that came up for discussion at the study session included improving Vine Drive, making it a de facto truck route, or paving Owl Canyon Road. City staff pointed out that Vine Drive does not have an interchange on Interstate 25, and residents in the Owl Canyon area have strongly opposed having a truck route in their back yard.

The city council directed staff to draft ballot language that would accomplish three things: repeal the 1999 initiative, free up funds for other transportation projects and define where the funds would be used.