Greeley City Council agrees Front Range Passenger Rail Project is a bad deal for Greeley taxpayers. Here’s why.
By Kelly Ragan
For once, Greeley city councilmembers all seem to agree: As it’s currently structured, the Front Range Passenger Rail Project is a bad deal for Greeley.
“I think the City of Greeley is getting ripped off,” said councilmember Dale Hall at a city council meeting Tuesday.
According to CDOT, the Front Range Passenger Rail would function as a passenger service rail linking Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins to Denver. The 173-mile corridor contains the majority of Colorado’s population and, according to CDOT, would benefit all Coloradans.
CDOT says it would serve as the “transportation spine” along the Front Range, stretching from the New Mexico to the Wyoming border. So why the rancor from the Greeley City Council?
The Front Range Passenger Rail project is a multi-billion-dollar endeavor. Senate Bill 21-238, if passed, would create a new taxing district to raise the cash. That taxing district would include areas in Weld County, as well as Broomfield, Denver, Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Douglas, El Paso, Huerfano, Jefferson, Larimer, Las Animas, and Pueblo counties that are within the territory of a Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Yet the rail would not go through Greeley. The proposed alignment runs from Longmont to Fort Collins, essentially following U.S. 287. Councilmembers estimated getting to the rail would take between 20 to 40 minutes depending on which side of town you’re in.
At the meeting, councilmember Brett Payton said the average commute time in Weld County is roughly 27 minutes. If it takes him 23 minutes to drive to the train from his west Greeley home, he said, that’s not helping to solve the congestion problem for Greeley taxpayers.
“The taxing district is the key from my perspective. That creates taxes inside of Greeley that Greeley taxpayers would have to (pay) for a train on the west side of I-25,” Payton said “Setting aside any conversations about whether a train is necessary or will ever get built, that alone creates a problem.”
Councilmember Tommy Butler joked during the meeting that this was a rare instance where he and Payton publicly agreed on something.
“I can’t justify raising taxes for folks to have to drive 35 minutes to the closest train stop,” Butler said. “I’m a little upset that it’s going through Fort Collins, which will have a smaller population than us in the next few decades.”
As the legislation is written, Greeley is not able to vote itself out of the taxing district.
The idea is that a passenger rail service would work to relieve growth and congestion pressures (you know, like all that horrible traffic on I-25), especially as Colorado continues to grow.
By 2045, CDOT projects the population will increase by 47%, which could put heavy demands on the Front Range corridor.
What’s next?
On Tuesday, council agreed to provide a letter noting significant concerns to CDOT and Colorado Legislative Representatives.