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U.S. 85 corridor to undergo major changes
Editor's note: The News-Press is featuring growth and development updates across unincorporated Douglas County. The northern tier of Douglas County including Meridian and Stonegate will be featured next week.
Significant changes are coming up along the U.S. 85 corridor on the western half of Douglas County.
By By: Christine McManus
Editor's note: The News-Press is featuring growth and development updates across unincorporated Douglas County. The northern tier of Douglas County including Meridian and Stonegate will be featured next week.
Significant changes are coming up along the U.S. 85 corridor on the western half of Douglas County.
Changes include business removals, highway expansion, a recycling center and landfill proposal and additional industrial and residential construction.
The corridor is also identified by land conservationists as a high priority area for wildlife movement between Pike National Forest and county open space.
The corridor includes land along both sides of U.S. 85 from C-470 in Highlands Ranch south to Castle Rock.
U.S. 85 expansion
Traffic congestion is the biggest problem along the U.S. 85 corridor, several hundred county survey respondents along U.S. 85 said last month. Castle Rock residents commute along with delivery and construction trucks along the corridor every day. While road construction is planned on U.S. 85, the money for expansion work is reportedly not available and won't be for a while.
That buys some time for businesses on U.S. 85, south of the MolyCorp access road to the gulch south of The Matchbox Bar and Grill. Approximately 21 acres of commercial land will be taken by the eventual realignment of U.S. 85.
The Colorado Department of Transportation eventually plans to expand U.S. 85 from two to four lanes, and in some sections to six lanes. During construction, CDOT said it will keep open the number of existing lanes during rush hours, but some closures outside rush hours will be inevitable.
Actual construction will depend on state and federal transportation funding; about $100 million is needed for expansion of the entire corridor. But transportation budgets look slim over the next few years, said CDOT spokesman Bob Wilson.
U.S. 85 construction will generally move north to south, Wilson said. Building six lanes plus turn lanes from C-470 to Highlands Ranch Parkway will cost $13 million.
Beginning in late 2003, U.S. 85 from Highlands Ranch Parkway to Titan Road will be expanded from two to four lanes at a cost of $18 million, with room for six lanes after 2020, CDOT said.
Road construction began this month on the major reconfiguration of Titan Road. The Titan/U.S. 85 traffic light will be replaced by a diamond-shaped interchange. A U.S. 85 bridge will fly over a Titan Road interchange. Titan Road will go over railroad tracks, instead of across the tracks.
Eventually CDOT will build four lanes on U.S. 85 through Sedalia at a cost of $40 million. The Sedalia intersection at Colorado 67 will eventually be reconfigured with turn lanes. Through Sedalia U.S. 85 will be realigned slightly to the east, onto easements of the Cherokee Ranch, Wilson said. A raised median will be built on U.S. 85. The existing U.S. 85 alignment will become a frontage road for Sedalia businesses.
Depending on funding, the soonest CDOT will finish construction on U.S. 85 through Sedalia is November 2003, Wilson said. The final design could be finished by July this year, Wilson said.
The last section of U.S. 85, from Sedalia to Castle Rock, is scheduled for completion no sooner than 2007 with existing funding projections, Wilson said. Expanding the number of lanes from two to four lanes will cost about $21 million.
Law enforcement
training facility
On 117 acres southeast of Titan Road, law enforcement officers train. More than 50 federal, state and local agencies pay to use the grounds to practice shooting, driving and other skills. Every day, about 150 officers use the site, said Sgt. Tim Moore, spokesman for the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.
Last year the County Sheriffs of Colorado Association moved its headquarters from Longmont to the Douglas County site. Increased use and further development of training amenities at the site is planned, such as driving courses and rifle ranges.
Industrial
subdivisions half built
One-fourth of the 5,000 acres in the U.S. 85 corridor between Highlands Ranch and Castle Rock is zoned for industrial use.
Half the acreage zoned for industrial development is built along the U.S. 85 corridor. Nearly 500,000 square feet of industrial buildings have been built along the U.S. 85 corridor in Douglas County.
The Titan Road Industrial Park, southwest of Titan Road and U.S. 85, has 17 of 34 lots built. Fewer than half the 31 allotted lots at the Reynolds Industrial Park in Sedalia are built. Louviers Industrial Park, east of Louviers Village, is half built with nine of its 17 lots planned, said Douglas County planner. Other smaller industrial subdivisions are approximately half built.
Landfill near the IREA
On 70 acres behind the Intermountain Rural Electric Association offices in Sedalia, a recycling center and landfill are proposed. Based in Texas, the Waste Corp. of America recently applied for a permit to build a Sedalia Recycling Center and Depository.
The center would reportedly recycle aluminum, plastic, tin and paper. The landfill, or depository as the Waste Corp. prefers to call it, would accept construction materials. Wood, concrete, asphalt and other construction material would be deposited underground.
Public hearing dates have not been set for the Sedalia Recycling Center and Depository.
Open space
Two wildlife underpasses are part of U.S. 85 expansion plans. Wildlife corridors between Pike National Forest and county open space were identified by the Colorado Division of Wildlife and Douglas County Open Space and Natural Resources. The underpasses would allow animals to cross under the highway, instead of crossing over the highway. During scientists' monitoring, elk and deer rarely used the underpasses to migrate east onto the 3,000-acre Cherokee Ranch, the 8,000-acre Highlands Ranch Open Space Conservation Area and Daniels Park. Mice, skunks, mountain lions and other animals do use the wildlife underpasses.
Between U.S. 85 and Pike National Forest, several open-space parcels have been purchased or are under contract. In Louviers, an open-space group is negotiating to possibly buy land surrounding the village from DuPont. The county used open-space tax revenues to buy North Willow Creek Ranch near the Roxborough State Park. Near Sedalia, a conservation easement on Duncan Ranch is under way with the Douglas County Land Conservancy.
The Chatfield Basin Conservation Network identified the area near the U.S. 85 corridor as important wildlife habitat.
Neighborhoods
One-fourth of the 5,000 acres in the U.S. 85 corridor between Highlands Ranch and Castle Rock is zoned for large-lot, rural residential development.
Chatfield Acres and Chatfield East, on northeast of U.S. 85 and Titan Road, are nearly built out with about 80 houses.
Plum Valley Heights is nearly built out with 30 large-lot houses. Louviers is also built out with just more than 100 houses.
Smaller planned neighborhoods include Horseshoe Ranch Estates, Ranch at Coyote Ridge, Indian Creek Ridge and Jarre Creek Ranch. About 200 homes are built in the U.S. 85 corridor.
Floodplain
Significant land development constraints would be enacted if floodplain maps are approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency this year, said county planner Bruce Lennox.
The Plum Creek Watershed proposal identifies nearly all gulches and creeks in the area as flood plain hazard area.
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