8/24/17
TO:
Governor John Hickenlooper
136 State Capitol Building
Denver, CO 80203
Colorado State Senator Dominick Moreno
200 E. Colfax
Denver, CO 80203
Colorado State House Representative Adrienne Benavidez
200 E. Colfax, Rm 307
Denver CO 80203
SUBJECT: Future Traffic, Housing and Funding Opportunities
Dear Governor and Legislators,
Metro Denver doesn’t have enough housing or roads for people now, so, what will it look like when the population of Denver is 10 million, and the population of Colorado is 15 million?
It’s coming and it’s not that far away.
What are we going to do about it, build a wall?
Maybe.
Or, maybe we could apply a version of the ‘Stay On The Trail’ technique of forest conservation, to our housing, transportation funding, and land development needs?
CDOT is finally speaking of an underground or under-grade project for I-70, but saying only of little or nothing on top.
This raises some questions.
Most notably, what happens to an open ditch, of any size, in a blizzard, or, what happens if we get upwards of 9” of rain overnight, as Houston is predicted to, tonight? Weather extremes are becoming the norm, so the sub-grade freeway must be covered, if only to keep the weather out, but how to pay for it?
Additionally, what will traffic look like when there is another quarter of a million people living between Havana and Quebec within ¼ mile of I-70? Level F operations on all roads and highways?
Maybe consider what it would look like if that quarter million people lived above a subterranean I-70, between Havana and Quebec, all paying monthly rent to CDOT.
Not taxes, not tolls, rent.
Another three quarters of a million people living above I-70 from Quebec to I-25?
All CDOT renters.
The amount of possible rent revenue generated (in perpetuity) by properly developing that immense, continuous airspace, would ameliorate CDOT from any need to create toll roads, anywhere in the state of Colorado, ever again.
That rent would, in the future, help finance the electric rail tunnel needed from Rifle to Golden, to, once and for all, remove all interstate truck traffic from Vail Pass.
How?
Bond Measures issued to begin construction on four to six stories of continuous, open-arched structure along and above the sub-grade I-70, leaving the at-ground-level space mostly open to neighborhood pedestrian traffic and cross streets, the several floors above contain parking with charging stations in the mass numbers we will need, interspersed with transportation-oriented commercial spaces, moving sidewalks, bike lanes, qwik-tubes and light rail, encased in what looks like a giant, open, modern ‘Roman aqueduct’, running across metro Denver, all as a foundation.
Creating these several floors of continuous but ‘open’, multi-modal-transport-oriented arched structure acts as a ‘light-&-air buffer’ between heavy traffic of the subterranean freeway and the tens of thousands of residential units you can stack, side-by-side, two continuous rows with space between, along on top. Now well far enough away from the noise and (mostly ground-absorbed) vibration of heavy freeway traffic, as to be not just livable, but very desirable.
Living units of little more than heated, powered & plumbed, rectangular concrete tubes, with a glass wall & private balcony at one end, and a steel wall & door to the interior hall at the other end. And a view of either New Mexico or Wyoming, a bunch of Kansas, Nebraska, some of Texas.
Cover the south-facing balcony walls with several hectares worth of pv solar and use some of the cavernous interior space available for city-sized banks of batteries to generate and store it’s it’s own energy. Cover the north facing with hanging gardens, and alternate unit size to vary the side surface and roof-line profile.
Average twenty-five or more stories of basic 15’w x 10′ h x 35′ d cubes for low and moderate income housing, include larger more expensive units on upper floors, varied in overall building height, and I-70 itself will help support Colorado’s future population density-vs-open space, and affordability needs, while rents providing new funding for future public works needs.
And do it without the horrific sprawl that still sees new residential/family front-doors being built less than twenty feet from what are in essence busy 4-lane boulevards, creating front yard deathtraps for all the children and pets who live there, forever. (That is not planning, that is the worst kind of sprawl imaginable, and if you want to see it first hand, drive Syracuse from 56th to 30th.
Shame on the Planning Commissions that approved such terrors.
We can build effectively for the huge population increases we are facing, or, we can pretend we are doing it right, right now.
How’s your morning commute, Governor?
Math
15′ wide space
350 +/- spaces per mile
2 continuous rows of units, north or south side, with plenty of utility space between rows
700 units per mile
25 floors of affordable housing
17500 units per mile
$600.00 per month unit rent
$10,500,000.00 monthly rent revenue capacity, per mile
$126,000,000.00 annual rent revenue capacity, per mile
$2.2+ billion dollars, annual rent revenue capacity, in I-70 CDOT airspace Ward Rd. to Pena Blvd.
From affordable housing, for almost a million people, any larger more expensive units on higher floors would generate additional rents, as would the commercial rents from space available in the lower ‘arches’ levels.
All without paving another square inch of Colorado.
One time construction cost are high, but shelter is required, and rent is in perpetuity, (as institutional buyers of residential properties will attest.)
Do toll-roads generate that kind of revenue for CDOT?
Miles and miles of prime property stretches across Denver, a developer won’t have to buy to build housing on, might pique participatory interests, no?
Each with a private balcony from at least several floors up, the views will be astounding, as will the savings in the asphaltization of every square inch of Colorado, like we watched happen in California.
Solid city sprawl, without end, mountain to sea, from San Diego to San Luis Obispo has happened in my lifetime. It will, under present circumstance, become solid city sprawl, without end, mountain to plain, from Trinidad to Cheyenne and it’s traffic, in the lives of today’s young children. Will their grand-kids ever see a prairie dog?
Or, we can build in super-densities that provide direct, new funding, and fulfill market housing needs while allowing access to continuous ribbons of open space, bike/jogging lanes and transportation options, on the roof and at lower/ground levels.
Build the living units Euro-style, bare concrete walls and stub-outs, so that when a tenant moves away they take their used interior cabinetry pieces, even the flooring with them, a steam-cleaner comes down the hall & hoses out the hollow concrete tube in fifteen or twenty minutes, a window washer cleans the glass in 5 minutes, a plumber pops in the temp shower/sink/toilet combo unit (a port-a-potty with running water) (if needed), and it’s ready to rent again, CDOT-style.
IKEA and others, just like in Europe now, will sell, or local craftspeople can build, a new kitchen and bath in the empty, sterile space.
The rooftop (of varying height) presents a special opportunity.
Continuous open space, freeway wide and miles long, jogging trails, bike lanes, restaurants, micro-breweries, an Amazon drone-port, sunset concerts, 5/10k run in the summer, in the winter when it snows, a half-pipe/terrain parks, 60 floors up.
Take your skis and the elevator up to the top at Havana in the morning and slide down the roof to work at Peoria from sixty floors up with fresh powder in the winter. A roof CDOT makes the snow base on.
Moving sidewalks, qwik-tubes, escalators and elevators move large numbers of inhabitants close, and great distance along the trail in little, or no time at all.
With millions more people moving here, it is utilitarianly absurd, financially havoc-wreaking and environmentally catastrophic for CDOT not to self-fund, to capitalize, by aggressively developing it’s vast airspace.
Developing in a ‘Stay On The Trail’ super-density fashion will also relieve/restrain residential development of much needed farm/ranch lands, to feed all the existing and coming new Coloradans.
We can plan and build for the future while conserving some of the land we have, or we can have more toll-roads, taxes, and sprawl.
Some might complain that it’s building a mountain of housing across Denver, but it’s better than ‘to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple more’.
Thewholeworldblog 