October 2021

Hi everyone — Here’s my update for October 2021.  Read on for updates about a new business coming to town, my take on the Town Teslas, the continuing saga of the Verizon tower, an update on the Downtown Superior commercial core, and more…

Let’s Connect

Want to talk about Town issues?  Here are three different options:

1. Thirsty Thursdays.  Join me at the Superior Community Center Thursday, October 28th for a drink between 6-8pm. 
2. Attend First Fridays at the Superior Community Center on November 5th between 7:45am-9:15am.
3. Want to talk one-on-one about Town issues? Shoot me an email at markl@superiorcolorado.gov and we’ll find time to schedule a Lowdown with Trustee Lacis.  

This Town Has Gone to the Birds

One of the recent great projects of our Cultural Arts & Public Spaces (CAPS) Committee has been having 75 clay birds, painted by members of the community, released throughout Town as part of a community-wide game of hide-and-seek.  Painted during our En Plein Air arts fest, these birds have been deployed throughout Superior.  Be on the lookout!  If you see one, pick it up and help it migrate to another fun place in Superior and keep the birds moving!  One bird landed on my deck (picture above).

Town Teslas

Earlier this year, the Town Board adopted the goal of transitioning our Town vehicle fleet to EVs.  With that goal in mind, the Town recently purchased 2 Tesla Model Ys to replace an aging Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango.  These vehicles are to be shared and used by a variety of about 20 of our Town staff and are used for different purposes (code enforcement, inspections, events, etc…).  

While there have been questions asked about the need for the Town to purchase the Teslas and the timing of doing so, in the long run, the Model Ys were only slightly more expensive than replacing the Town’s fleet with comparable Jeep Grand Cherokees/Dodge Durangos.  That premium will be made up over time by avoiding the need to purchase gas.  

In my opinion, the manner in which these Teslas were purchased (without first seeking the Board’s approval) and the timing of their purchase (right before an election where we have a sales tax question on the ballot) were both handled poorly.  With purchases of this magnitude, the Board should have been consulted with beforehand and we should have seen Town Staff’s analysis as to how they arrived at this decision and why they felt this was the right time to move forward with the purchase.  If you’d like to see the full board discussion with the Town Manager that occurred at the Town Board work session on Oct. 18, please see this link (discussion starts at 2:03).

Verizon Tower

Verizon constructed a new cell tower in Community Park to address coverage issues that customers have had in Superior for years.  While the tower was erected several months ago, Verizon is waiting on Comcast (the fiber provider) to pull fiber to the site.  Once that is complete, Comcast will hand-off the site back to Verizon for additional testing.  As of now, the “on-air date” is forecasted for mid-November, however, that depends on how quickly all parties move.  Thank you for your continued patience with this project.

Sales Tax Ballot Question

Election Day is Tuesday, November 2, 2021  As always, you can drop off your ballot at the dropbox at Town Hall (no postage necessary) up until 7pm on Election Day.  

On this year’s ballot, the Town of Superior is proposing a net 0.28% sales and use tax rate increase which will be dedicated exclusively to fund transportation projects.  If passed, taxpayers will pay an additional 28 cents for every $100 spent in Superior.  For the Town, it will mean an additional $1 million in revenue for 2022 and $1.6 million in 2023 (and each year thereafter).  Spend some time on the Superior Streets website for a long and helpful list of FAQs.

Downtown Superior Main Street Project – Carmel

If you’ve driven near Downtown Superior lately, you’ll see that there is a lot of activity going on.  The bridge over Coal Creek is nearing completion, homes continue to be built on the south side of the development by Remington, Thrive, and Toll Bros., and additional streets have been paved throughout the project.

In the northern and commercial core sections, a lot of grading work is going on for Parks 1&2 and the Main Street development that is being built by Carmel.  While this dirt work may not seem that exciting, it’s a huge step towards the completion of Main Street in Downtown Superior.  This construction was originally supposed to start in the Spring of 2020, but was significantly delayed due to the pandemic.  Then, ownership of the Main Street project changed hands, further delaying construction.  But now, work is starting up in earnest and I’m excited to FINALLY see progress on the commercial core of Downtown Superior.  

Promenade

The southern connection to Downtown Superior (Promenade Drive) is under construction.  Once completed, Promenade will connect Downtown Superior at its southeastern corner running along US-36 to 88th Street.

I’ve seen some discussion on social media about the decision for the Town to construct Promenade Drive, which merits some additional explanation. When Downtown Superior was proposed, the developer agreed to provide a southern access point and connect the development through to Coal Creek Drive.  Although the developer originally agreed to make and pay for this connection, a majority of the Board as well as a strong showing from the community became concerned with the traffic impacts that would result on the existing Rock Creek neighborhood.  In particular, we were worried that additional traffic on Coal Creek Drive would require either a traffic signal or a roundabout at the intersection of Coal Creek Drive and Rock Creek Parkway.  However, the developer was not willing to pay for all of the costs associated with adding a traffic signal/roundabout.

Consequently, the majority of the Town Board decided that it would be better to avoid the connection through to Coal Creek Drive, and instead, connect Downtown Superior via an extension of Promenade Drive to 88th Street.  While this decision requires an additional expenditure of Town funds, any southern connection to Downtown Superior would require an expenditure of Town funds (whether we elected to extend Promenade or install a light/roundabout at Rock Creek Parkway).  Ultimately, I believe the Promenade Drive extension will be a better and safer connection that avoids bisecting an existing neighborhood. 

Santiago’s

Great news! Santiago’s has signed a lease for a space in the Superior Marketplace, next to Wayne’s Smoke Shack.  Stay tuned for more details on when Santiago’s will be opening their Superior location!

Rocky Flats Lawsuit Update

In 2018, the Town of Superior brought a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in 2018, alleging that the FWS failed to properly consider the environmental consequences of opening trails on the Rocky Flats Refuge.  Central to the claims brought by Superior was the failure of the FWS to consider the planned connection of these trails to the Rocky Mountain Greenway and the necessary highway crossings that would impact plutonium contaminated soils. 

Although the District Court recently dismissed the case, the FWS for the first time made clear statements in filings with the Court that: “the Service will release a separate Environmental Assessment (“EA”) to analyze whether or not to construct these potential connections to the Refuge.”  In her opinion, Judge Krieger pointed to such statements in concluding that: “To be clear, the Court is not ignoring the fact that all of the evidence in the record clearly suggests that FWS does indeed intend to someday connect the Greenway Trail to the greater Greenway Project.  And because FWS has not yet analyzed the environmental consequences of effectuating that connection, it will someday have to do so.”

In my opinion, this is a big win for the Town, because the FWS has now publicly represented to the Court that they will conduct the appropriate environmental studies before making the trail connections.  Because of this, the Town has determined that an appeal is not necessary.  The Town, along with other Federal agencies, will be watching FWS and will assess whether the appropriate environmental reviews have occurred. The Town remains concerned with the fundamental issues presented by use of contaminated property in and around the Refuge and the risks that poses to the residents of Superior. 

RMMA Community Noise Roundtable Update

The Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (RMMA) Community Noise Roundtable (CNR) was created by an Intergovernmental Agreement dated December 1, 2020, between Jefferson County, Boulder County, the City & County of Broomfield, Westminster, Arvada, Superior, and Louisville.  The CNR meets monthly on the second Monday of each month between 9am-11am.  For more information about the CNR or to view past meetings, agendas, meeting materials, and upcoming agendas, please visit the CNR website.

At the most recent CNR meeting on October 11, 2021, the Roundtable passed a motion to create a task force that will work with airport staff to study and propose changes to flight paths in and out of RMMA.  After the task force formulates its recommendations, those proposals will then be sent to the FAA for consideration.

This is a great development and I look forward to seeing what the task force comes up with.  I believe that changing flight paths would be an effective way to reduce noise impacts on surrounding communities.  If the task force can formulate a proposal that avoids residential areas to the greatest extent possible, while also encouraging better routes for flight school operations and equitably distributing take-offs to the Southeast as well as to the Northwest (which are currently disproportionately traveling over Superior), that will go a long way to reducing the impact that the airport is having on surrounding communities, like Superior.  I appreciate that the airport is willing to work with us on a proposal and viable solutions. 

Superior Community Center Update

Since opening this summer, we’re seeing increased attendance at the Superior Community every month.  In July, we averaged about 100 daily patrons.  That number grew to 150 in August, 175 in September, and now in October, we’re over 200 daily patrons.  

If you haven’t yet checked out our Community Center, I encourage you to do so.  My boys love the kids’ room (the Spot), where you can play ping pong, foosball, and air hockey.  They also enjoy the DVDs and books in the library annex.  They also just recently played in the Superior Smash Bros. Tournament this past week.  For me, I’m a huge fan of live music on the weekends as well as the rotating craft beers on tap at the Serendipity Tap & Cafe.    

Other community uses include a flu shot clinic and a blood drive.  I’m also planning on organizing a community Open Mic Night starting in 2022 (let me know if you’d be interested…)  

Please visit this link for more information.

COVID-19 in Superior

Boulder County Public Health has issued a public health order that requires everyone to wear masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status, to protect children who are not yet eligible for vaccines.  Vaccines are available to anyone above age 12.  Pfizer has applied for emergency use authorization for vaccines for those ages 5-11 and we anticipate FDA approval in the coming days.

For information from the State on vaccine distribution, please see: https://covid19.colorado.gov/for-coloradans/vaccine/vaccine-for-coloradans.  For more information on obtaining a COVID vaccine, please visit: www.boco.org/COVIDVaccines.  

Boulder County Public Health is no longer reporting total COVID-19 cases for Superior.  Instead, they are giving us regional data.  You can see the case trend in the regional chart (Superior, Louisville, and Lafayette) by visiting this link: https://www.bouldercounty.org/families/disease/covid-19/covid-19-illness-data/.