Tag Archives: parking

Waterview Traffic on and off Arapahoe Avenue

One of the big concerns that usually comes up for new building projects is what it will do to traffic. Zocalo’s Waterview project plans make cars less prominent on the site itself. But in spite of the best intentions of the plans, people in the area are concerned about how the project will affect traffic on Arapahoe Avenue. Will it cause more snarl-ups and delays during rush hour?

There will be 215 parking spaces in a parking building. Add another 180 parking spaces will be hidden inside or underneath various buildings. The picture shows where the parking spaces will be.

Parking and traffic at Waterview
Parking spaces at Waterview

The problem is that all those cars will all be going in and out of Waterview at the same point on Arapahoe. That means more cars involved in local traffic on that already congested Avenue.

According to Zacolo’s documents at the Boulder Planning and Development website, “During the morning peak-hour, . . , about 62 vehicles would enter and about 138 vehicles would exit the site. During the afternoon peak-hour, . . . , about 139 vehicles would enter and about 89 vehicles would exit the site.”

Zacolo figures that about 20% of traffic will be absorbed by bus, bike, and walking  options. The bus stops on Arapahoe Road are about 150 feet west and 0.15 miles east of the site. Both sides of Arapahoe Avenue have sidewalks and bike lanes. Waterview will have a path along the creek for walkers and bikers and an on-site bike share and car share station.

So, the hope is that the increase in traffic won’t be as big because more people will bus, bike, or walk instead of driving where they need to go.

Zocalo wants to help with Boulder City’s transportation and climate goals for East Arapahoe. Including transit options to people who live, shop, and work at Waterview could help meet those goals.

We don’t know yet what the overall effect will be on residents and businesses that are already in Arapahoe Ridge. We will keep you updated on how this project moves through the system.

Boulder Community Hospital Expansion

crane

The Boulder Community Hospital (BCH) at Foothills will be getting a major expansion very soon. Early in October the City Planning Board approved Boulder Community Health’s plan. This expansion will add new facilities just east of the current campus in the Riverbend office park.

The plans are for two major structures to be constructed during the expansion. The first will be a 76,000 square foot medical building. This building will be used for services such as inpatient and outpatient behavioral health, as well as inpatient rehabilitation. Once the expansion is complete, they will begin providing inpatient care first. Only when that is complete will outpatient care will be provided. At the current time, both of these services are done out of the hospital’s Broadway campus. With this transfer of service location, the city will assume ownership of the Broadway campus by the end of 2017. The second major expansion will be a new parking structure according to the plan. The five story parking garage, able to hold close to 500 vehicles, is a direct response to a shortcoming reported by current hospital officials. The garage is designed for possible future.

This expansion is just one part of a 10 year improvement plan BCH. David Ghent, the CEO of BCH, stated that they “ developed a 10-year action plan of operational improvements and changes that are designed to keep BCH the premier provider of health care services in Boulder County.” The expansion project will help accomplish this by consolidating medical services and create newer facilities.

Commenting on the expansion in its entirety, the board chairman John Gerstle and his colleagues said it is a project they are “very supportive” of. “I think for (BCH), it’s quite clear there’s insufficient parking presently available in the new hospital area there, and this will deal with that issue,” Gerstle said, “and the building which will contain…the facilities presently in the old  hospital on Broadway — they need a place to move to once the city takes over. This will be where they wind up, which is an efficiency location, given the nearness to the other hospital facilities and emergency room. So I think people recognize that this makes sense.”

Being a non-profit facility, BCH plans to pay for this expansion in a few ways. The first will be through existing savings, and fundraising. Another source of funding is through issuing bonds. Its A-ranking as a non-profit makes these bonds very appealing to investors.