UFR TPR September 4th, 2025 Meeting Minutes

Introductions and Determination of Quorum - Chair Ross

Vice-Chair Stephens called the meeting to order at 1:00pm. Introductions were made around the room, and a quorum was determined to be present.

Entities present

Weld County, Larimer County, Morgan County, CDOT, City of Brush/Town of Hillrose, Estes Park, Fort Morgan, Fort Lupton, Keenesburg, and Wellington.

Approval of UFRTPR June 5, 2025, Meeting Minutes – Vice Chair Stephens

Motion: Approve the June 5, 2025, Meeting Minutes, Moved by: Chris Cross, Seconded by Commissioner Malone. Motion passed unanimously.

Presentation and Adoption of the UFRTPR 2050 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) -  (Spencer York, CDOT)

Spencer provided to the group the draft of the UFRTPR 2050 Regional Transportation Plan. He then asked the group to provide any comments or last revisions, then would like to suggest a motion to approve or adopt the plan as is or with any final corrections that need to be made.

Josie Thomas asked if there was an open comment period that was available to the public and if there were any comments received. Spencer responded that there was an open comment period available to the public and no comments were received.

Evan Pinkham referred to the identified transit need map provided on page 8 of the presentation which identifies a high transit need in the North Front Range area. Spencer clarified that this map would not be used to make actual funding decisions for transit, that it is more identifying large populations of people who may not be able to drive themselves such as the elderly and is based on Census data.

Chair Ross also had concerns with some of the verbiage being used and the overuse of the word equity on page 6 of the presentation which also ties into the map on page 10, and that the need for transit is being over emphasized in some of these areas where it is not needed.

Spencer responded that this is a UFRTPR plan, not a CDOT plan and it is changeable, but comment was not received to change it previously. Spencer highly recommends that the group move forward with adopting this plan with revisions which can be made after adoption. If priorities shift, the group can bring forward a motion to make revisions at any meeting in the future.

Vice-Chair Stephens suggested that we clarify the paragraph under Creating an Equitable Transportation System on page 8 and add more explanation as to the specific needs in certain areas.

Christa Curtiss mentioned to the group that in the Human Services and Transit Plan (which is still out for public comment and will eventually serve as an appendix to this plan) also includes the map on page 8 identifying transit needs but goes into more detail explaining the needs of the different areas. Christa emphasized that public input is needed especially in some areas where the needs may be different than what data provides. The Human Services and Transit Plan will be brought to the next UFRTPR quarterly meeting to be approved.

Chair Ross expressed concern that even though the map is only included to give a general idea of transit needs, they need to be more specific and that the map may be referred to in future discussions and needs may be mis-represented.

Spencer offered the option to remove the Identified Transit Needs Map from the UFRTPR 2050 Regional Transportation Plan and have it referenced in the Transit Plan as an appendix only.

Chair Ross suggested to move forward with adopting this plan with revisions and have this discussion at the next meeting in order to give them time to bring the discussion back to their local boards and to receive better comment. 

Motion: Approve the UFRTPR 2050 Regional Transportation Plan, Moved by: Chair Ross, Seconded by Commissioner Malone. Motion passed unanimously.

Present and Award Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Funding (Evan Pinkham, Weld County)

Evan Pinkham explained to the group that the CMAQ funding is traditionally rotated each year between Weld County and Larimer County and for FY25 it is Larimer County’s turn to receive the funds.

Two applications have been received, one for a Larimer County project, and the other an Estes Park Project. Estes Park is requesting $574,539.00 for their Fall River Trail Final Phase Project. Larimer County is requesting $761,150.00 for their Larimer County Road (LCR) 70 (Owl Canyon) and LCR 15 Roundabout Project.   Eric Tracy explained to the group that they split the funds between two projects to resolve the reduction of funds of $574,539.00 from the Multimodal Options Funds (MMOF) for the Fall River Trail Project.

Eric gave the group a presentation of the LCR 70 (Owl Canyon) & LCR 15 Roundabout Project. This project is a portion of the Owl Canyon Corridor Project, and these funds will help them move forward with design and into construction for the roundabout at the intersection of LCR 70 & LCR 15.

David Greear spoke to the group about their application for the Fall River Trail Project. This is the final phase and once complete they will have a trail going from downtown Estes Park all the way out to the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Motion: Approve the FY 2025 CMAQ Funding Awards, Moved by: Commissioner Malone, Seconded by Chris Cross. Motion passed unanimously.

Transportation Commissioner Announcements (Cecil Gutierrez, CDOT)

Transportation Commissioner Gutierrez gave a few quick updates including, that at the legislative sessions there were some hits to the budget for CDOT including MMOF, but the good news is that during the special session, CDOT’s budget was very minimally impacted and all essential people that are needing to be hired will still be hired.  

Significant progress has been made on rural road projects, and they will continue to make progress, but they still have a long way to go.

On I-25 the tolling and the safety program will both go live the first part of December 2025. A lot of emphasis on information will be going out to the public alerting of this on T.V., newspapers, social media, etc.

Multimodal Transportation and Mitigation Options Fund (MMOF) Program Funding (Evan Pinkham, Weld County)

Evan Pinkham continued the discussion from the last UFRTPR meeting on the subject of the funds that were reduced from the MMOF program due to budget cuts. On August 18^th, 2025, the Executive Committee met regarding this topic and to determine which course of action to take.

Five projects were affected by the fund reductions including the Fall River Trail Project from Estes Park. The funding for this project in particular, will stay in FY23 and is available but will be reduced from a little over $1,400,000.00 to $864,018.00 which is a total reduction of $574,539.00. This is the same amount Estes Park is asking for in CMAQ funding and will therefore take the place of the loss of funds from the MMOF program.

To reconcile the following funding years, they are having to shift some of the funding around for the remaining projects. For example, for the Town of Estes Park’s Moraine Avenue Multimodal Trail Design Project, funding is going to be pushed forward two years from FY24 to FY26. The funding amounts are staying the same and those projects will still be fully funded, and one positive in pushing the funding out is projects will be able to get this funding two years earlier. Looking at the Town of Platteville’s Downtown Business District Sidewalk & Landscape Improvement Project, they are looking at pushing some of that funding out from FY25 forward to FY26, and since funds will be available earlier, this project should not be affected greatly in their timeline. For Weld County’s On-Demand Transit Service, funds will be pushed out from FY27 to FY28, losing $13,481.00. The Town of Estes Park’s Transit Operations funding will also be pushed out from FY26 to FY28 and will be losing $10,672.00 in funding which when looking at the overall amount needing to be reduced is not a huge hit.

Josie Thomas commented that she appreciates all of the work put into this and for the Executive Committee involving Bryce Reeves and Michael Snow so they could give a CDOT perspective on how these changes may impact IGA’s etc.

Community Roundtable

Estes Park (David Greear)

It is elk season in Estes Park.

Fort Morgan (Tom Acre)

The Barlow Road Project is coming to an end, and they are hoping to partially open it soon and fully open it the weekend of September 14^th, 2025. This has been a good project and Castle Rock Construction Company (CRCC) has been doing a good job.

City of Brush/Town of Hillrose (Dale Colerick)

Nothing for the Town of Hillrose. For the City of Brush they are in year 3 of a 5-year Heavy Road Project and it looks like they are going to get funding for year four. At exit 89 on I-76 there is a Maverick Gas Station, Tractor Supply, and a semi-truck wash that will be opening up towards the end of the month. They expect to see an increase in traffic and have done some planning with speed limits and such in advance for these additions.

Weld County (Evan Pinkham)

Weld County went out to the public over the summer to receive feedback on their Safety Action Plan including eight community events and a couple of open houses. They received a lot of good feedback; a lot of issues were brought forward on CDOT roads, but this is to be expected with the amount of traffic on their roads in this area. They are wrapping up the Safety Action Plan and will be bringing it back the board in October for adoption. Weld County’s Planning Group is kicking off a Comprehensive Plan update that was last updated in 2020; This will be a 16-month process that will be bringing in a lot of transportation items.   

Larimer County (Vice-Chair, Commissioner Stephens)

Larimer County has referred a measure to their ballot for November 2025 for a .15% sales tax increase for transportation. They tried to do this last year, and it almost made it, so they are really hoping for success this time. They have identified $650,000,000.00 dollars’ worth of projects that would be nearly impossible for them to take on without some additional funds so they are very hopeful that it will pass this time. Larimer County has adopted their Safety Action Plan, and they are close to adopting their Transportation Plan Update.

Welling (Bob Gowing)

Bob wanted to give the group a quick update on the Cleveland Avenue Improvement Project. A few years ago, they received some Revitalizing Main Streets (RMS), MMOF, and some Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) grant money as well as some other funds for this project. They have been cranking along with design, and they have two weeks left in the appraisal period. Then they can wrap up acquisitions needed for that project and are looking forward to having this project completed by November of 2026.

Keenesburg (Mark Gray)

Keenesburg is in the process of working with CDOT for the water and sewer line relocations for the roundabout at WCR 59 and Highway 52 and are working on getting the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) together to start the work to move their utilities out of the way.

Fort Lupton (Chris Cross)

Fort Lupton’s first public meeting will be September 11^th, 2025, for their Transportation Plan update which is tied in with their Comp Plan and their Trails Master Plan. This process will take a little over a year and they will be reaching out to CDOT and/or Weld County as they proceed with this process.

Adjourn

Meeting adjourned at 1:57 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Samantha Brown

Secretary