The Longmont City Council on Tuesday unanimously supported the most expensive plan for the transit hub planned for First Avenue and Main Street, throwing in a few jabs at the Regional Transportation District in the process.
The cheapest option for the city would have been to accept $17 million from RTD and build a basic station with no public bathrooms that likely would open in 2018.
But the council said the RTD-planned station was not enough for Longmont, hinting at tensions between the city and the district over a long-delayed commuter rail line and what some Longmont residents consider paltry bus service.
Councilman Gabe Santos said he was surprised RTD wouldn’t consider public restrooms a necessity, and that, in his estimation, the cheapest option was unacceptable.
“What they provided us is basically patting us on the head and saying, ‘This is what you’re gonna get,’ and I think we deserve more,” Santos said.
Instead, the council opted to ask RTD to hold off on designing and building the station so the city can solicit developers to partner and build mixed-use commercial buildings and perhaps a parking garage.
This option, with a public restroom included, might incur more costs for the city.
Longmont officials say they do not yet have a price tag for the more expensive option, other than acknowledging it would require “significant financial resources” that could mean bonding or a taxing district.
Councilwoman Polly Christensen said the more expensive option is forward-looking, considering the South Main Station development that is going in the old Butterball turkey plant. South Main Station is slated to be high-end apartments and retail shops.
“The Butterball development will be a complete gamechanger for that part of town and those people will use this if they’re traveling to Denver,” Christensen said.
Councilman Brian Bagley expressed concern that RTD’s $17 million option was not getting Longmont enough for the amount of money.
“On this schematic I don’t see — where’s the $17 million?” Bagley said. “Give me $17 million and I’ll pave this and paint some lines. Seriously I’m going to put in a (bid) for this. I’ll hire (subcontractors) or something.”
Bagley also expressed concern that the bus station wouldn’t foster the economic development the city is looking for.
“You don’t go to many bus stations and say, ‘Wow this is a really nice area of town,’ so it would be a shame if we build this $17 million project only in the end to have a transient type of feel to it,” Bagley said, adding that he supported the more expensive option because it allowed the city to study the station more.
Finding a partner for a more complicated and expensive transit station development could take longer, but City Manager Harold Dominguez said that might not necessarily be a bad thing because it would give the city time to work on reducing the risk of flooding in that area.
That, in turn, could mean knocking dollars off the final price tag for the station.
Mayor Dennis Coombs suggested using some of RTD’s $17 million to acquire the land and then lease it back to the businesses located there currently. Dominguez said that is an option that can be considered.
Karen Antonacci: 303-684-5226, antonaccik@times-call.com or twitter.com/ktonacci
