December 17, 2008 5:48 PM

Dark Days in Sun Valley over RTD's Station

            They're short $3 million but the people in the economically stressed Sun Valley community in Denver are still pressing RTD and the city to move the FasTracks West Corridor station at Federal Boulevard a block east and north, to where the Denver Public Works garage is going to be torn down.

            Some of the folks are going to meet at the site Thursday morning at 10 at Decatur and Howard streets to talk about it. That's where 2-year-old Matthew Jauregui was swept out of his mother's grasp in May 2007 during a flash flood that turned Lakewood Gulch into a torrent.

            The Rocky crew that hiked from Denver to Golden last year along the West Corridor light rail remembers this site well. The Federal bridge is crumbling. A landowner across the street is fighting RTD over condemnation of his site. And the residents aren't letting go of moving the station where they think it will be better for renewal of their area.

            The RTD project is going to address most of that recurrent flooding problem. The culvert where Matthew was drowned will be gone and replaced by a widened channel and lengthy Decatur bridge to absorb flash flood flows.

            But Sun Valley residents still don't like the station location in the open space along Howard on the north side of the gulch. They and the city have wanted the platform over at Decatur for 10 years, but the environmental study done in 2004 settled on the Federal spot.

            Phil Kaspar, a leader of the Sun Valley residents, says putting the station in the low spot by the gulch makes it dangerous for crime. A walkway under a larger to-be-rebuilt Federal bridge to the west side of the street is an invitation for muggings.

            RTD says putting the station near the busy boulevard, Rude Park ball field and the Richard Castro Human Services Building makes it safer right where it's planned because there are more people. "Federal is a much higher activity area," FasTracks spokeswoman Pauletta Tonilas said.

            Kaspar disagrees and says eventually with redevelopment at the public works garage site, there will be much more activity at the Decatur site.

            It also saves money for RTD to keep the station at Federal. Several bus routes will feed the light rail station and having the bus pullouts right off Federal saves time on the schedule and fuel in the tank, versus having to drive east a few blocks to Decatur then back to Federal.

            The rub is money. RTD is willing to move the station but only if someone else covers the increased costs and it doesn't delay the project, which is supposed to open as FasTracks' first new corridor in 2013.

            The price tag: $5 million.

            Last month, Bill Vidal of Denver Public Works told RTD that the city can come up with a little over $2 million from the Better Denver bond funds for transit-oriented development at the Federal Station.

            Cal Marsella, RTD general manager,  wrote back this week that it firmly believes Federal is the best site and can't devote more money to moving the station after making substantial cuts to other parts of the line. If RTD had money, it would have to restore some of those other cuts before spending on moving Federal Station.

            Whether it's proper to take bond funds approved by voters for off-site development and spend it moving RTD's stuff to a new location remains to be seen. Still, Sun Valley is covered by darkness since they're still $3 million in the hole.

            The neighbors started a petition to try to drum up a Sugar Daddy or Mommy for the other $3 million.

Posted by Kevin Flynn at 5:48 PM | Comments (0)