The Denver Post
May 31, 2009, Karen E. Crummy

Former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm drove a stake through its heart. Voters in three counties shot it down. When it lingered on life support, the state Transportation Department pulled the plug. But every time a plan to build a Jefferson County toll road flatlines, someone — or something — is there to resuscitate it. "I think the power of real estate and those that prosper from real estate is why this (road) never dies. They won't take no for an answer," Lamm said. The Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority, composed of representatives from Jefferson County, Arvada and Broomfield, is the latest group to propose a toll road that would connect Colorado 128 on the north near Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport to Colorado 93 at West 64th Avenue. Regional arteries would link the toll road to the Northwest Parkway. In the south, the tollway would feed into Colorado 93, a two-lane road. The project faces significant hurdles, not the least of which is obtaining hundreds of millions of dollars in private financing to build it. Yet, while traffic congestion is a significant problem in parts of Jefferson County, especially in Arvada, no study has ever shown that this toll road will remedy the problem. Even so, authority members, who have sunk $900,000 of taxpayer money into the endeavor, say it will. "It's common sense," says Jefferson County Commissioner Kevin McCasky, chairman of the authority. And, they say, the road will do something just as important: expand development. "It provides access to Arvada's new office park and Jefferson County's airport and Broomfield's shopping centers," said Arvada Mayor Bob Frie. Big bucks in "Big Road" Five commercial and residential developments totaling about 3,500 acres stand to generate hundreds of millions of dollars not only for their owners, but for Jefferson County, Arvada and Broomfield through taxes, impact fees and sales taxes on construction materials. Without the "Big Road," as some call it, the developments — especially the commercial aspects, which generate three times more property taxes than residential — may take much longer or possibly never come to pass. ...

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_12486654?source=bb