The 102-mile circle that would become the Denver beltway sees no sign of completion as one city--one of Colorado's oldest--vociferously opposes it. But, at a regional level, it may be too late to curb decentralization and sprawl.
"Because Denver's partial belt was built over time, with many assuming that the project would one day be finished, business owners and residents made decisions accordingly. Decentralization and sprawl, said one prominent planner, Patrick Phillips, have already happened. Golden's pushing the fight to the last man standing will not change what the region became along the way, he said.
'The cow has left the barn,' said Mr. Phillips, the chief executive officer at the Urban Land Institute, a nonprofit research and education organization based in Washington. 'It is an incorrect argument that if you can hold out against that last segment and not complete the ring it will be a bulwark against sprawl, because the sprawl already exists. From a regional planning and transportation perspective it makes more sense to have a full beltway than three-fourths of a beltway.'"
FULL STORY: No Closure for Denver’s Beltway Loop
Op-Ed: Downtown Denver's Homogenous Renaissance
There's a lot to like about the resurgence of downtown cores. But as is the case elsewhere, Denver's core has only attracted a small subset of the wider city's population. Most people still call the suburbs home.
Report: Benefits in the Billions for a New Highway Through the Denver Suburbs
The proposed 10-mile Jefferson Parkway expansion would cross land once home to the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant—site of one of the country's largest environmental crimes.
More Colorado Cities Banning Public Smoking
Something is missing from a lot of the walkable downtown business zones in cities around Colorado: tobacco smoke.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Silicon Valley ‘Bike Superhighway’ Awarded $14M State Grant
A Caltrans grant brings the 10-mile Central Bikeway project connecting Santa Clara and East San Jose closer to fruition.
Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail
The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.
Jacksonville Completes Park Street Road Diet
The half-mile corridor now features new bike lanes and sidewalks, as well as roundabouts and new landscaping.
Hanoi to Ban Gas-Powered Two-Wheelers, Later Cars
City officials hope that electrifying motorcycles, a ‘lifeblood’ of Vietnamese transportation, will have a positive impact on air quality and noise in the city’s downtown.
California Set to Increase Electric Truck Chargers by 25%
The California Transportation Commission approved funding for an additional 500 charging ports for electric trucks along some of the state’s busiest freight corridors.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Yukon Government
Caltrans
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Norman, Oklahoma
City of Portland
City of Laramie