Judy Montero

Sunnyside neighborhood leader Keith Howard gave some props to Judy in his letter in the current edition of the North Denver Tribune. The subject: the FasTracks station at 41st and Fox Streets. An excerpt:

Parts of three neighborhoods fall within the half-mile circle around the station site:  Globeville, Highland, and Sunnyside.  By 2006 people in those neighborhoods already recognized that the new rail transit infrastructure would be a catalyst for significant change, and that up-to-date land-use planning would be critical.  Thanks largely to the efforts of Councilwoman Montero, the City agreed to perform a Station Area Study.  It took long time for RTD’s environmental studies to define the exact locations of the 41st/Fox station and the two maintenance facilities (commuter rail and bus), but that now appears to be complete.

Too often we see the City, RTD, DHA, neighborhood groups, DPS, land developers, etc. acting as though all the others didn’t exist. Each of these entities has the ability to act independently, disregarding the inevitable interactions. It isn’t smart, but it happens. In this case, however – at least so far – people and interests from every side are trying to imagine, together, a different future for a particular part of the City. All recognize the unique attributes of this particular station vicinity, and there seems to be a generally broad consensus that change can be both beneficial and harmonious.

On present planning, the Station Area Study will be completed by August of this year. It deserves wider notice as an example of how to create reasonable, and reasonably flexible, designs for the Denver of the new century.