Keep those Greenways Growing
Right now, if you want to witness a major greenway corridor in Denver practically grow in front of your eyes, Westerly Creek is the creek to watch.
Plans are moving ahead for a City of Aurora greenway project that will include a new vehicular bridge at Montview Boulevard, which will enable bike/ped traffic to travel underneath. From Stapleton the greenway will continue south through Montview Park all the way to 17th Avenue.
Meanwhile, near Lowry, Denver is working on a project that will extend the greenway north from Lowry, all the way from 11th Avenue to 13th Avenue and New Freedom Park (at Xenia). When those two projects, both of them funded, are built, the remaining greenway gap will extend from 13th Avenue to 17th Avenue (a 4-block greenway gap instead of the current 9-block gap).
On July 7, 2011, the Westerly Creek greenway at Stapleton and at Lowry demonstrated that the “highest and best use” for a floodplain is to provide a place for floods to spread out more safely. Meanwhile, on that same day, a flood on the next watershed to the west/southwest, Montclair Creek, caused by the same storm, left cars partially submerged in the intersection of 14th Avenue and Kearney Street. The same thing happened exactly a year later, on July 7, 2012 and again on July 13, 2013, with cars trapped each time. The first of those three floods also sent filthy water into restaurants on East Colfax, and ruined homeowners’ valuables in basements in Mayfair. More evidence that USGS scientists were correct when they mapped Montclair Creek as a creek, not an underground pipe, many years ago.
The eight-block section of Montclair Creek on E. Colfax Avenue from Jersey Street to Fairfax Street flooded in the 2011 event. (How many of you already knew that part of East Colfax was a creek corridor?) Flooding on Colfax between Jersey and Hudson was confined to Colfax itself (curb-to-curb) and the interiors of some of the adjacent businesses, including a restaurant I like to visit. From Grape to Fairfax, some of the floodwater coming down Colfax began spilling to the north on the side streets, continuing to 16th Avenue. At Fairfax Street, the last of the floodwater on Colfax turned north and found its way to 16th Avenue.
Our piece of Colfax has changed a lot in the past 5+ years. With Geez Louise leaving for Amsterdam, Sol Vida Dance Studio moving in next door, an Irish pub and an ice cream shop getting ready to tempt this father of three players of Irish music, who also loves good ice cream, Colfax continues to change. What models might we find for a street to simultaneously serve cars, bikes, pedestrians and patrons of local business, to convey floodwater while perhaps cleaning it, to offer recreational opportunities, and to provide educational and artistic inspiration? Check out a few sketches (below) from a summary of Portland, Oregon’s SW Montgomery Green Street project to start your creative juices flowing.
Brian Hyde is an expert in floodplain management and stream restoration. He wants your feedback at westerly_connect_brian@comcast.net or 720-939-6039.
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