Many years of mistrust by Town of Bayfield representatives toward the Colorado Department of Transportation might be coming to an end as work on a Highway 160 Access Control Plan (ACP) nears completion.
The plan covers 3.52 miles from the west end of Gem Village to just past the east edge of Bayfield. It's a joint effort of CDOT, the town, and La Plata County.
The three entities hosted a public open house on Dec. 4 at Bayfield Town Hall for locals to examine the access plan maps and other information about the project. Twenty to 30 community members attended.
The maps show future new roads, including a planned Highway 160 south bypass of Gem Village.
CDOT representatives made it clear the access plan does not contain any funding commitments to build any of the new roads or stoplight intersections shown.
The maps also show which existing highway accesses will remain as is, which will be restricted to three-quarter movement or right-in, right-out, and which ones CDOT wants to close if and when the attached land use changes or an alternate access becomes available.
Since at least the late 1990s, the big concern for Bayfield has been to protect the Commerce Drive access to businesses and homes north of the highway.
CDOT representative Mike McVaugh announced that the town's claim for that as a legitimate access has finally been verified, thanks to efforts of longtime business owner Vern Sower.
Sower provided the deed for the access, McVaugh said. The hang-up was that the deed wasn't tied to any specific property, so CDOT staff had been unable to find it, he said.
"It's recognized as a 60-foot access. This effort has gotten everybody to the table, and Commerce Drive has been legitimized," McVaugh said. "We see it as a public street."
The plan does show Commerce Drive restricted to three-quarter movement with no left turns out onto 160, but that won't happen until there is a new north side access at the east edge of town, with the Colorado Drive frontage road extended to connect with it. Those are shown in the plan, with a stoplight at the new highway access.
The plan shows a future stoplight in the center of the Gem Village bypass, with a new connector road going north past Grasshopper's Landscaping to the County Road 507 intersection. It shows a new road going west from the Homestead Trails subdivision to that stoplight.
There was concern about how the east end of that bypass will affect a couple of homes in the Homestead Trails subdivision.
CDOT representative Jo Heinlein told a couple of subdivision residents that the bypass could get further review at some point. "It's not outside of the question," she said. "When that decision was made, it was the best option from an environmental standpoint. The exact alignment isn't engraved in stone. All this is conceptual."
The south bypass was shown in the 2006 Highway 160 corridor Environmental Impact Statement from Farmington Hill to the east edge of Bayfield.
McVaugh said, "One of the things CDOT didn't do real well in 2006 was to look at how this affects people. CR 507 is a key intersection for Gem Village, and we didn't really consider that in the EIS."
Until that bypass happens, the plan shows full movement at CR 507, three-quarter movement at the east end of the frontage roads, and the west end of the south frontage road closed.
"Long-term, if we did the bypass, the old road could be redeveloped into more of a boulevard," McVaugh suggested.
The plan shows a stoplight at a re-configured Bayfield Parkway west end intersection, as supported by the town and adjoining large landowners. "We need to find a way to support future development and square up that west-end intersection," McVaugh said.
The plan abandons CDOT plans, as shown in the 2006 EIS, to eventually move that access about a third of a mile to the east with a connection to Bayfield Parkway through land owned by Tri-State Generation and Transmission.
Heinlein said Tri-State has plans to expand their sub-station there, eliminating that option.
Some of the Homestead residents were dismayed to hear that there's no estimate for when the stoplight at the west end of Bayfield Parkway might happen. Heinlein advised them to submit comments that they want it sooner.
The plan shows a new road going north from that stoplight to County Road 506. The town has adopted a west side plan that shows commercial development in that area.
As has been discussed before, the current CR 506 access will eventually be closed. The south end of CR 502 will be re-routed west to 506.
The plan shows a potential overpass to connect 502 south to Bayfield Parkway via CR 509, with the current access closed. McVaugh noted concerns about slower emergency response onto CR 502 if that happens. "We had that discussion with the fire department. We'll have to visit it again," he said. "It might completely change. This may not happen for 20 years. Everything we are doing today is with the best knowledge we have now. As land use needs change, this (access control plan) can be amended."
The plan is supposed to allow for more flexibility, based on site-specific conditions, than the "Freeway" designation imposed on this highway section by the Colorado Transportation Commission in October 1999. Town representatives opposed that designation, which generally restricts public accesses to at least a mile apart.
CDOT representative McVaugh told the Times after the meeting that getting a change in that designation isn't out of the question.
In his presentation McVaugh said, "Where CDOT has changed is we want to accommodate the town's needs more... I know there's been a lot of contention between the town and CDOT in the past. I think we're making some inroads on that."
Town Manager Chris La May said, "From the town's perspective, this (ACP) is something we invited, because when we took over Bayfield Parkway (formerly Highway 160B), it gave us an access point (at the west end) that we wanted to protect. It's a framework for more land use planning, because we know where the accesses will be."
He continued, "We feel like we have a plan that we can live with, even if we don't agree on every access point."
Participants at the open house were invited to submit comments. Those will be considered for the final version of the access plan, which might be up for approval through an inter-governmental agreement in January or February by the town, county, and CDOT.
