You Are Invited!

Focus of Public Meetings - Public Meeting No. 4 on July 31st and August 1st will focus on presenting the project team’s draft recommendations and rationale for the Build Alternatives to advance into the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). The Build Alternatives are those remaining major investment options that appear to have the most promise at fulfilling the project’s Purpose and Need. This recommendation step concludes the basic Alternatives Analysis. These Build Alternatives along with the No Action and Transportation Systems Management (TSM) Alternatives will be further explored in the DEIS.

Components of the Build Alternatives – The Build Alternatives have several components including trackway alignment, stations, vehicles, and operating plan. The following types of draft recommendations will be presented at the public meetings.

Alignment -

• From Denver Union Station (DUS) – One alignment will be recommended from the two under consideration – BNSF or UPRR.
• Through Commerce City – The project team will retain several alignment options to advance in the process. A single clear "winner" among the options under consideration has not yet emerged.

Stations – The project team will recommend a single station site to advance from among the several site options under consideration at each station target area where practicable. The Commerce City station target area will need to advance several site options because of the multiple alignments still on the table in that city. View Station Site Evaluations

Vehicles – The project team will recommend one of the two rail vehicle technologies currently under consideration.

Service Plan – The project team will present the draft service plan for rail and bus operations for the corridor.

What are the No Action and Transportation Systems Management (TSM) Alternatives? – The No Action Alternative incorporates the highway and transit improvements, including FasTracks, from the region’s 2030 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) except that it does not include the rail transit project in the North Metro Corridor. The TSM Alternative enhances the No Action Alternative by further improving bus services/facilities and travel demand management strategies within the corridor. The TSM Alternative also does not include the North Metro rail transit project. Together these two options provide important references for comparisons to the Build Alternatives for assessing the achievement the project’s Purpose and Need and for highlighting tradeoffs in community and environmental impacts.

What Information Will Be New?  - Many of you have participated throughout the project at major public meetings, issues forums, station planning meetings, and the special vehicle technology forum. Here’s a list of what types of information will be new and what types of information will be refinements of previous presentations.

New Information

• Station site options developed since the May station meetings
• Comparative evaluation of the station site options
• Draft Recommendations Regarding Alignment, Stations, & Vehicles

View Station Site Evaluations

Refined Information

• Alignments and their comparative evaluation results.
• Vehicle technologies, their characteristics and possible impacts and comparative evaluation results.
• Draft Service/Operations Plan
• Other general project characteristics and potential impacts.

What Do We Want to Hear from You? At these meetings and soon thereafter we want to hear your comments on the draft recommendations regarding the Build Alternatives and their components.

How Has Your Input to Date Been Used? How Will Your Input Regarding the Build Alternatives Be Used? Your input has greatly affected the development of the alternatives and their components, but especially the station site options. Your input has affected the evaluation criteria used to compare the performance of the alternatives in the Alternatives Analysis. Your input has also affected the considerations of your local elected officials and city staff and the RTD Board members as they weigh in on the project process and results to date. Your input at the upcoming meetings will further affect the deliberations of the project team and participating agencies as they move to adopt the Build Alternatives and enter the full environmental analysis.

What Happens After the Public Meetings? The project team will gather your comments and work with the participating local and environmental resources agencies to adopt or modify the Build Alternatives to be advanced into the DEIS. These consultations will take place in August.

What Happens in the DEIS Development? The No Action, TSM, and Build Alternatives will be defined, explored and compared in much greater detail than has been conducted to date in the Alternatives Analysis. This includes further assessment of the degree of achievement of Purpose and Need, Cost and Cost-Effectiveness, and detailed natural resource and community impact analysis (such as noise and air quality). The environmental consequences portion of the DEIS will present the estimated effects, both beneficial and adverse, for each of the project alternatives in over 20 subject categories covering a wide array of community and natural environment topic areas. This analysis will be completed using well-developed and accepted methodologies along with the concurrence of the responsible agencies. Mitigation strategies for adverse impacts will also be presented in the DEIS, as warranted, along with final recommendations on the Preferred Alternative.

When Will Additional Public Participation Occur? The degree of public outreach will be reduced for the next six months while the project team undertakes detailed research and studies to further evaluate the impacts of the remaining alternatives and document those findings in the DEIS. The project team will work closely with the local jurisdictions and the environmental resource agencies during the DEIS development stage. The DEIS will be released for public and agency review early next year. The DEIS process will culminate in a Public Hearing during the DEIS review stage, after which the project will advance into the Final EIS and Preliminary Engineering.

How Can I Get Additional Information About the Project? For more information, visit the project Web site at: www.rtdnorthmetro.com or call the infoline at (303) 299-2000. You can also go to our Web site to submit a comment and/or sign up for our mailing list.

Para mas información en Español acerca del proyecto por favor vaya a la pagina de internet.

www.rtdnorthmetro.com
(303) 299-2000