Longmont, Colorado Tuesday, April 26, 2011 Publish Date: 4/25/2011 By John Fryar © 2011 Longmont Times-Call BOULDER —Boulder County commissioners on Tuesday will consider a three-party pact that could clear the path for construction of the Jefferson Parkway toll highway. An intergovernmental agreement among Boulder and Jefferson counties and the city of Boulder also could lead to preventing development of a 640-acre parcel southwest of the Rocky Flats Wildlife Preserve. Most of that land is now owned by the Colorado State Land Board, with some surface and subsurface lease interests in private ownership. Under the proposed agreement announced last week, Jefferson County would put up $5.1 million toward the cost of acquiring the parcel, which is in northern Jefferson County near the intersection of Colo. Highways 93 and 72. By the end of this year, Boulder County and the city of Boulder would contribute $2 million each to an escrow account for the parcel’s eventual purchase. Boulder County’s $2 million share would come from non-sales-tax open-space funds. One possible source for at least part of that contribution would be the lottery-funded Conservation Trust Fund money that Boulder County and other local governments receive from the state annually for local parks, recreation and open space projects. If the acquisition of the 640-acre property inefferson County isn’t completed by Jan. 1, 2016, Boulder County would get its money back. Boulder and Jefferson counties and the city of Boulder would also agree to work to seek any additional funding from other sources, if they’re needed to complete the purchase of the property in question. Under the three governments’ plan, once the property is bought, it would be transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for inclusion in an expanded Rocky Flats wildlife refuge. In a memo for Tuesday’s meeting, Boulder County policy analyst Megan Davis noted that this county’s officials have had “a longstanding desire” to preserve the parcel as open space. That, Davis wrote, is because the property “provides connectivity” between the open spaces to the west of Colo. 93 and the wildlife preserve to the east of the parcel. In return for the three-way effort to buy that parcel, Boulder County and Boulder would withdraw their longstanding opposition to construction of theefferson Parkway. That 10-mile-long toll road would start at Colo. Highway 128 in Broomfield’s Interlocken area, run south along the eastern edge of the Rocky Flats refuge, and then veer to the southwest to end at an interchange with Colo. 93 north of Golden. The proposed intergovernmental agreement would also specify, however, that no future conversion of existing lanes of Colo. 93 to toll lanes could occur without the support of Golden, Boulder andefferson counties and the city of Boulder. Boulder County commissioners have scheduled a Tuesday afternoon public hearing on the pact, and Jefferson County’s commissioners have the agreement on their own Tuesday meeting agenda, as well. The Boulder City Council is expected to consider the agreement on May 3. John Fryar can be reached at 303-684-5211 or jfryar@times-call.com. _
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