The draft Regional Transportation Plan, which can be downloaded from the City’s website, was largely developed over the past ten months with the help of citizens who attended public participation events. Planning staff from both the City and the County provided various exercises allowing people to make recommendations on existing and future transportation systems around Salida. While the City’s comprehensive plan will govern development within the city limits, the Regional Transportation Plan aims to address development extending several miles into the County.

According to the City:

The creation of a Regional Transportation Plan is an important tool that will be used to help guide future growth to prevent traffic congestion, provide opportunities for pedestrian and bicycles, create better connections for faster emergency response times, and increase the safety of the road network around Salida. This plan will also allow City and County staff to apply for State and Federal funding for future Capital improvement projects.

Most recently, the draft plan was amended to include comments from previous public hearings as well as from meetings between planners and the Division of Wildlife, Poncha Springs, and Salida Parks, Open Space and Trails.

Much of the discussion at Wednesday’s meeting stemmed from public comments by citizens who encouraged the Commission to weigh the needs of pedestrians, cyclists and other recreational users. A proposed “collector” route along CR 177 which would parallel the Union Pacific railroad from Cleora to CR 175 was criticized by several audience members, including Tom Jacobson and Lisa Malde. Planners noted that an important function of the plan is to establish right-of-ways which can be cited in the context of future applications for development and that inclusion of the right-of-ways in the document does not necessarily mean that they would ever be utilized.

The Commission recommended several changes to the plan based on the discussion. These included:

• Changing language in the plan to emphasize the conceptual nature of proposed alignments and intersections because any actual construction would depend on further engineering and traffic studies;
• Incorporating school bus routes;
• Noting that collaborative efforts with other entities like Chaffee County and Poncha Springs will necessarily inform any implementation;
• Including a discussion of the order in which development might occur, as well as possible triggers for implementation. In general, for example, an attempt to develop a parcel might provide the first opportunity to implement a planned trail or road realignment; and
• Expanding the discussion of CR 177 in general, and adding criticism by SPOT board member Shawn Gillis in particular. Gillis termed the proposed route counter-productive to local efforts to promote downtown Salida and develop Tenderfoot Mountain for non-motorized recreation.

The draft plan will be submitted to the Salida and Chaffee County planning commissions for their consideration.

Volunteers get orientation from Andrew Mesesan

The morning was chilly, which probably made it difficult for volunteers to show up, but within minutes the extra clothing was not needed. The consensus was that the day’s temperature was perfect for trail-building.

Workers buffing out a nice section of trail

This addition to Salida’s local trail network will be usable right away since we were able to connect to an existing trail in two places. The trail we connected to is quite steep and this new section gives trail users a longer, more meandering option.

Another view of Salida and Ouray & Chipeta

This section of the Backbone Trail gives trail users a view of the Tenderfoot Trail, completed by Salida Mountain Trails with the help of volunteers in April of 2006. Also visible is the top of Tenderfoot Hill, much of Salida, and the Sawatch Range to the west.

We hope the community will get out and start enjoying the new trail section right away. Thanks again to our volunteers. We’ll be publishing the dates of our monthly volunteer days soon so that everyone who wants can be involved.

Did you get frustrated the last time you tried to drive from one end of the city to the other?  To travel by car from the hospital parking lot to Sonic off Highway 50 in the most direct route you would have to make 5 right turns, 4 left turns, 6 stops and go over two dips.  This is an inefficient way to get from one end of town to the other.

If you would like to help avoid poor transportation designs in the future, please join us for a public meeting Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. at the Salida SteamPlant in the Riverside Annex building.  The City and County are working together to create a transportation plan for the area around Salida so that as we grow, we ensure quality, well-connected transportation infrastructure is constructed.

Creation of a regional transportation plan is the first project of the recently formed six-member Salida Regional Planning Commission (Salida RPC).  This commission includes three members and an alternate from both the Salida and County planning commissions.  The Salida RPC was created to consider land use and related issues in the municipal services and growth areas around Salida.

The Salida RPC would like input from all stakeholders as we consider the best routes for future roads, locations of bicycle trails and stops for public transportation.  We need your ideas on how to improve problem intersections and how to move cars through while maintaining safe speeds in neighborhoods.

Transportation affects everyone from emergency service providers to bicycle commuters, to parents with school age kids and seniors who rely on public transportation and walkable streets.  We all have to get from point A to point B and most of us want to do so in a safe, easy and efficient manner.

By planning now, we can facilitate future development that provides needed transportation connections not only for the new development but also for existing and future residents.  Landowners and developers will know how their project fits into the plan for the area, if they choose to develop their property.  Perhaps most importantly we can avoid making bad or short sighted decisions that can be costly or impossible to fix after new development has occurred.

If you don’t think you need to come to this meeting take a few minutes to try to figure out the best route from the airport to the smokestack in Smeltertown or try walking or riding your bike to Walmart and you may change your mind.  That smokestack does not look so far away when you are standing at the airport.

Please join us at the SteamPlant, 220 W. Sackett on Tuesday, December 9^th at 6:00 p.m.  Light refreshments will be provided.

Dara MacDonald

With scant public dialogue, the commissioner races offer voters little more than choosing between the Rs or the Ds. A look at the candidates’ respective web sites shows a shopping list of perennially important issues but ultimately little in the way of substantive plans for how to address those issues.

Though the country is mired in the worst economic crisis – possibly since the Great Depression – not one candidate mentions the economy and how they intend to balance a budget when county departments are struggling to keep pace with citizen needs at the same time revenues are decreasing. It seems nearly impossible that the county will not be faced with really challenging financial scenario as fed and state funding and grant sources wither in what many economic pundits are finally acknowledging to be a real live recession. I have yet to hear any candidate talk about the economy or offer up what they intend to do to mitigate against the book balancing mess-to-be as unpleasant numeric realities hit the fan. Job cuts? Service cuts? Tax increases? Balancing the budget will get far tougher before it gets easier during the next four years.

The lack of discussion on the economy is curious in light of the fact that at least three of the candidates put economic development at the top of their campaign priorities. It’s hard to argue that economic development shouldn’t be a top priority but I have yet to hear a concrete plan that provides real steps and measurable benchmarks toward a well-articulated vision of sustainable economic vitality within the valley.

In numbers that are increasing nearly daily, city and county websites around the country post plans, budgets and annual reports to show the public the progress made toward achieving measurable goals and explain the challenges when efforts to achieve those goals fall short. Chaffee County residents should demand the same of local elected officials.

Speaking of transparency and accountability, how about enacting formal purchasing and procurement policies and procedures? At a time when belts are going to be tightening, formal purchasing procedures can help save money, eliminate redundancies and waste, not to mention ensures fairness. Government run more like a business gives voters more confidence that their tax dollars are being spent wisely.

Another issue a couple candidates are talking about is infrastructure. Can we look beyond county borders when we’re talking about infrastructure? Yes our roads and bridges are riding pretty rough these days but an even thornier issue is transportation. Traffic in and out of this county on our two major, largely two-lane, highways worsens daily. A lack of proactive planning for better infrastructure into, out of and within the county will weigh heavily on the success of economic development efforts, with tourist visits serving as the canary in the coalmine. I’d also love to see county leaders start the dialogue for mass transit options to reduce road congestion, addiction to fossil fuels, carbon emissions, and traffic tickets, especially along the gauntlet between BV and Salida.

It’s less than 50 days until Election Day. I’m anxious to get to the meat of the campaign.