City asks voters to reverse truck route ordinance

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

In a move designed to get the truck route issue off dead center, the Fort Collins City Council voted 4-3 on Aug. 15 to send the issue back to voters.

This November, the city will ask voters to repeal a citizen-initiated ordinance related to building a truck route around Fort Collins. Work on a truck route has been stalemated for several years because of problematic language in the 1999 initiative--language that limits truck route options.

"This will give us a fresh start," said Mayor Doug Hutchinson.

The reason for putting the issue on the ballot, he stated, is to move forward with finding a solution to the truck traffic problem in downtown Fort Collins. Wording in the ordinance, which resulted from passage of Ballot Initiative 200, has made it impossible to work with Larimer County and the Colorado Department of Transportation on the truck route issue, Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson said that moving trucks out of Old Town is important to him and the city council. "It's a growing problem," he said, adding that truck traffic impedes redevelopment of the Old Town area.

The new referendum asks voters to repeal Ordinance 142 "in its entirety" and to approve spending $1.8 million - the amount left in the Building Community Choices truck route fund - to pursue a truck route or other transportation projects in northeast Fort Collins.

Ballot Initiative 200 was endorsed by a citizen group called the Council For a True Bypass. Richard and Judy Dunn, members of the group, said the recent action by the city council "shows little respect for 67 percent of the voters" who approved the initiative in 1999.

Ordinance 142 requires the city to seek a truck route outside the growth management area and to permanently abandon East Vine Drive as a possible option. The problem with the wording, Hutchinson said, relates to the federal highway planning process. The National Environmental Policy Act requires that all possible route alternatives are studied, and to qualify for state and federal funding, a road project must follow NEPA guidelines.

Also, Hutchinson said, he has been told by CDOT that both the city and county must agree on the need for a project such as a truck route. A few years ago, the county told Fort Collins that it would be inappropriate to discuss a truck route unless all route options were considered.

County Commissioner Kathay Rennels said that if the new referendum passes in November, the commissioners will sit down with city officials to look at all the options, including whether there is a need for a truck route.

The new ballot issue is a "pragmatic step that needs to happen to get Larimer County at the table," said Mark Jackson of the city's transportation department. The city and county will need to work together to move a truck route project up to a high regional priority, he added. If a truck route is identified, it will have to compete with many other regional transportation projects for funding.

Vine entwined in issue

In 1999, East Vine Drive was at the center of the truck route debate. Before the citizens' initiative was put on the ballot, Fort Collins spent considerable time and money looking at possible truck routes around Old Town. Vine Drive rose to the top as the preferred alternative, but it was voted down by the city council after a public outcry by residents living close to the proposed route. Resistance was led by the CFTB.

At that time, CFTB members said they wanted to be sure Vine Drive would not be considered again for a truck route, and the group worked hard to get Initiative 200 passed. Many CFTB members live near East Vine Drive, in neighborhoods at East Vine and Lemay and also to the north, around Lindenmeier Lake.

While the Vine Drive alternative was raising hackles in northeast Fort Collins, folks in north Larimer County were concerned about another possible option, a truck route through Owl Canyon along County Roads 70 and 72. Many in that area were angry about passage of Initiative 200, and they accused the city of trying to solve its truck problem on the backs of rural residents.

The 1999 initiative also instructed Fort Collins to pursue "route-based strategies" that would encourage truckers to use the interstate system instead of the shortcut through Fort Collins. Earlier this year, city officials abandoned those efforts after a study found them to be ineffective.