New on 12/11 - Ray Wells New Railroad. Ray Wells started the Front Range Toll Road Company in 1986 and in 1995 he added a companion railroad named Flat Penny Incorporated. Colorado law says that a railroad must complete 20% of construction in the first five years (CRS 40-20-105) but Flat Penny never did that. That may be the reason that Wells has let Flat Penny go into noncompliant status for not filing an annual report. And it may also be the reason that he has incorporated a new railroad called Silver Railroad Company.
Silver Railroad Company (SRC) was incorporated in October by attorney William Waller, Jr. of Waller & Mark, PC ( www.wallerandmark.com ). Ray Wells name doesn't appear anywhere in the paperwork but his fingerprints are all over it. The filing describes a three mile wide corridor in exactly the same language as the Super Slab filing, they even misspell Keenesburg in exactly the same way. The map with the filing is the same one created by Felsburg Holt & Ullevig Engineering that they filed for the Super Slab. The map also has the 20 mile long section south of Pueblo that they deny is there (see the 9/7 and 9/13 entries below). And of course it crosses almost 10 miles of Stewardship Trust Land.
The law requires a railroad to name at least five people as incorporators and to list their places of residence. It can be any five people, they don't need to know a locomotive from a lawnmower. The five named for SRC apparently all live at the offices of Waller & Mark because that is the address given for each of them. William Waller is the attorney who has filed the papers for several of Wells' Super Slab related corporations. Lydia Jaggard is a paralegal for Waller and Mark listed at their website by her maiden name Lydia Casillas. Kelly Catron got her undergraduate degree about two years ago and in the Spring of 2006 she was studying in the Netherlands for an MBA. She chose the Netherlands for its "green fields, canals, tulips, and cheese." See her college blog. Less that a year later she's a railroad mogul for a company claiming it has the power "without limitation to exercise the right of condemnation or eminent domain in the acquisition of lands, rights-of-way or other rights or easements." The other two incorporators are Marge Day and Marcia Turner who may be railroad industry experts but more likely work for William Waller.
Wells must have used up his creativity when he re-named the Super Slab as the Prairie Falcon Parkway Express. Silver Railroad is pretty plain by comparison. A better name would be the Human Shield Railroad since he has filled in the names of four women to hide his involvement.
CRS 38-2-101 allows "any corporation formed for the purpose of constructing a road, ditch, reservoir, pipeline, bridge, ferry, tunnel, telegraph line, railroad line, electric line, electric plant, telephone line, or telephone plant" to use eminent domain. In 2006 HB-1003 took the power away from private toll roads. Wells has hinted that he thinks he can use the eminent domain power of a railroad to obtain the land he is after. There has been talk of amending the law so that only legitimate railroads can exercise eminent domain and I think that should happen. The real railroads know where the freight shippers and consumers are. Where changes in routes are needed they are working on them and not waiting for Ray Wells to try to sell them something. CDOT and the railroads have already done a study on moving the trains away from I-25. The report is HERE and the plan is to move the route farther east than the Super Slab corridor. We need a bill that says you need to be a real freight moving railroad and not just a "tracks for hire" speculator before you can use eminent domain. If BNSF or UP want to build a route from Wellington to Nunn, Keenesburg, Bennett, Peyton, Ellicott and Pueblo they can do it. I'm not worried about them having the power to take my land, they'd only do it if it made sense. It's misguided visionaries like Ray Wells that we need to be protected from.
Adobe Acrobat files for the incorporation papers are at the Secretary of State's site and at: Silver Railroad #1. Silver Railroad #2. Silver Railroad #3.
********************************************** They have a new problem on I-25 in Denver. In the section where they've completed the widening people are now speeding during rush hour instead of being at a standstill. It seems that when you put pavement in the area of the heavy traffic it helps. Would it have helped if they put the new lanes out at Watkins? Answer: No. Braking free on I-25.
CDOT's plans to fix post T-REX tie-ups face hurdle: money A new I-25 bottleneck.
New on 11/27 - Stewardship Trust Land. I've mentioned several times that the Super Slab corridor crosses nearly 20 miles of state owned property in northern Pueblo and southern El Paso counties. There is no way to avoid the state land because it fills the three mile width of the corridor in those regions. When Ray Wells got the idea for this road in 1986 he apparently planned to buy or lease rights-of-way across state land but an amendment passed in 1996 has made that all but impossible.
When Colorado became a state in 1876 the U.S. government gave them two sections of land in every township to be held in trust for the state school system. The land could be leased or even sold to raise money for the schools. Article IX of the new state constitution was entitled "Education" and Section 9 under that heading creates the State Board of Land Commissioners or State Land Board (SLB). The Commissioners on the SLB are the trustees of this state land and it is their duty to manage it in the best interest of the schools. Today the trust owns three million surface acres and four million acres of mineral rights. The surface rights are mostly leased out for agriculture and the minerals for gas and oil drilling.
From 1876 until 1996 the only constitutional guidance for the SLB was that they should maximize revenue. That could mean selling land or leasing it for any kind of use. Amendment 16 of 1996 rearranged priorities for the SLB. It specifies that the state lands are a "perpetual, inter-generational" asset and that the "economic productivity of all lands held in public trust is dependent on sound stewardship, including protecting and enhancing the beauty, natural values, open space and wildlife habitat thereof, for this and future generations.
There are 220,556 acres of state land in Pueblo County, more than any other county in the state. El Paso County is fourth with 182,283 acres. Combined that is over 400,000 acres and most of it is concentrated near the county line between the two counties. These are vast expanses of remote prairie. This should be reason enough for the SLB to refuse to let a highway pass through the area, but if it is not there is the Stewardship Trust.
Amendment 16 directed the SLB to designate between 295,000 and 300,000 acres of the trust lands as a "long-term stewardship trust." The land selected was to be "valuable primarily to preserve long-term benefits and returns to the state; which trust shall be held and managed to maximize options for continued stewardship, public use, or future disposition, by permitting only those uses, not necessarily precluding existing uses or management practices, that will protect and enhance the beauty, natural values, open space, and wildlife habitat thereof." In the following session the legislature passed a law incorporating the same language. It says that the SLB cannot approve a use for Stewardship Trust Lands that does not protect the natural state of these open space areas.
The process to select land for inclusion in the Stewardship Trust took several years. By December 2000 the SLB had selected 295,672 acres. Of those, 107,000 acres are in south El Paso and north Pueblo county. They form a sort of U-shaped or amphitheater shaped region open to the north. And right down the center of it is Ray Wells' Super Slab corridor. See the map HERE.
The corridor crosses almost 10 miles of Stewardship Trust Lands. The million dollar question is how Wells plans to build a road there. Suppose Wells wants to buy land for the right-of-way. The law doesn't allow land to be sold from the Stewardship Trust directly. It would first have to be removed from the Stewardship Trust and replaced by an equal amount of land elsewhere. That requires the approval of 4 out of the 5 Land Commissioners. And the Commissioners are bound to act in the best interest of the trust beneficiaries, the K-12 school children of Colorado. It is their constitutional duty and their fiduciary duty as trustees of the state lands. Getting people home to Highlands Ranch is not their concern. So to allow the toll road 4 out of the 5 would have to vote that hacking a highway corridor through the middle of Chico Basin Ranch protects the beauty and natural value of the ranch for future generations. There is a statute which allows the SLB to grant rights-of-way across state lands without the land being sold but again that would require the board to say that the natural value of the land would not be harmed which is preposterous.
So what was Wells thinking when he plotted a course across ten miles of Stewardship Trust Land? I'm not sure the man is rowing with both oars. Every time I assume that his army of lawyers, lobbyists and engineers must know what they're doing I'm proven wrong. He has filed maps showing his corridor continuing 20 miles south of Pueblo and then sent his spokesman out to deny it. He sent notification letters to everyone in a five mile wide zone in Adams county and hasn't corrected that. He renamed the company Prairie Falcon and claimed to be concerned about the environment at the same time he routed it right along the Nature Conservancy operated Bohart Ranch and through the Chico Basin Ranch. And worst of all he has ignored all of the evidence that this toll road won't help the traffic situation on I-25. A study done by Wilbur Smith Associates and Felsburg, Holt & Ullevig projected that the Super Slab would bring in only 52% of project costs when 70% is the minimum that they grade as feasible. Wells has hired these same two companies on other occasions but chooses to ignore this result.
The study: 11MB Acrobat file.
This blunder is just more evidence of the incompetence of these would-be toll road builders. Ray Wells may have organized the paving of a few parking lots at the Tech Center but that doesn't qualify him as a highway builder. And unless he has a plan to get the Land Commissioners to subvert the state constitution and betray their duty to the trust he can't put his road across that Stewardship land.
Last week the High Plains Coalition for Responsible Transportation Policy called for Governor-elect Ritter to name a CDOT Director who will go on the record as not being willing to partner with the Super Slab. Super Slab spokesman Jason Hopfer told the press that it was "premature" to be talking about this. In October Hopfer said it was "premature" for us to be signing Not For Sale letters. "Premature" means he'd like to change the subject. He said that their proposal needs to be heard and considered before any decision is made. It's not as if they haven't been given a chance. The company was started in 1986. Wells couldn't get it going then but tried again around 1996. That failed. In 2005 he tried to rewrite state laws to his advantage but he got caught and failed. He has had press conferences and has presented all of the information on his website. There's no reason for anyone whose paid attention to need to hear more. Read the Nov. 20 entry at: Toll Road Warrior's Blog.
More information on the Stewardship Trust Lands:
Corridor Map through Stewardship Lands.
Colorado Constitution Article IX.
CRS 36-1-107.5 Stewardship Lands.
New on 10/23 - Super Slab spokesman would like to change the subject. Today's Pueblo Chieftain has an article on our Not For Sale letters and maps. I won't repeat my end of the story, you can read it HERE, but I thought the responses from the Super Slab's spinmeister were interesting. According to the Chieftain story "Jason Hopfer, a spokesman for the toll road company, said Friday that he's aware of the Not For Sale campaign but feels it's premature at this stage." Oh does he? Let's look at some of his statements from the last two months.
"This is a project that will be done with willing sellers and local government," he [Jason Hopfer] said. The Denver Business Journal - August 28, 2006
Hopfer said toll road developers will look for willing sellers within the corridor and eminent domain will be a last resort. Colorado Springs Gazette - August 29, 2006
Hopfer admits, "the project is basically reliant on willing sellers..." The Brighton Standard Blade - September 26, 2006
And the website for the Prairie Pumpkin Partway Excuse says that the road can be built without using eminent domain "depending on the willingness of property owners within the final 1,200-foot alignment to sell their property for fair market value" and "We would be happy to talk with anyone interested in selling their property within the corridor." They encourage people to call or email to talk about it. So excuse me Mr. Hopfer if I got the impression that we were talking about the willingness of landowners to sell. I think we'll continue with the letters and maps even though you don't care to talk about it.
According to the Chieftain Hopfer said that he hasn't attended any of the opposition meetings, but he speculated that people who are interested in selling might not be willing to stand up and say so at a public meeting. That's probably true but they could have their own meeting in a Honda Civic.
In another attempt to explain away the fact that landowners won't sell Hopfer told Colorado Public Radio that owners who aren't willing now might change their minds in the future. You can hear that interview and an interview with Robert Thomasson of Elbert County at KCFR Colorado Matters.
On September 7 I pointed out the errors that the Super Slab had made by mailing many of the wrong people in Adams County and not mailing some people at all in Pueblo County. They sent Jason Hopfer out to say "We didn't make a mistake. The mistakes we made were because of the short deadline. And the dog ate my homework." Spin, spin, spin. Deny, deny, deny. That's his job.
************************************************* In the 10/6 update I told of a lobbyist for the Front Range Toll Road Company named Steve Balcerovich who owns land in the three mile wide corridor. There were also two other people named Balcerovich with property in and near the corridor in Elbert County. I've been told that one of those people is Steve's mother. The other is also a relative but he is known to be opposed to the Super Slab and will hopefully be signing a Not For Sale letter.
New on 10/19 - Not For Sale Maps Are Online. The maps showing the progress of the "Not For Sale" letters are online now. Use the link at the top of the page or HERE to see them. CDOT has said that they would only form a partnership with a toll road company and use their eminent domain powers if the company had first bought the "vast majority" of the property from willing sellers. Jim Woodward of Wellington got the idea to have corridor landowners sign letters to CDOT saying that the have no intention of selling their property to the Super Slab. These properties are then marked on maps to show where the unwilling sellers are. The maps also indicate where there is public land, church land and several other categories. They show that the Super Slab route would have to cross about 20 miles of state land including the state's 87,000 acre Chico Basin Ranch in northern Pueblo and southern El Paso Counties.
In a little over a month we've collected letters from the owners of about 800 parcels of land in the Super Slab corridor. We've proved the Super Slab's claim that they can buy the property they need from willing sellers to be a myth. The full width of the three mile wide corridor is marked as not for sale in several areas. In many other areas the route would have to be so circuitous as to be impractical. More letters are received each day so keep checking back to see the progress. And if you see that a neighbor's property isn't marked give them a call and ask them to sign a letter. We don't reach everyone by email.
In Pueblo County the corridor in the Vineland area is nearly blocked. This is where there is irrigated farming along the Arkansas River. There are several out-of-state owners of large ranches near the southern end that need to be contacted to fill in the southern part of the county. To the north are 12 miles of state owned land.
Northern El Paso County is nearly blocked for a distance of many miles. Many of the families who have signed letters have the same names as the roads they live on, Eurich, Mikita, Doven. These are the descendents of the early settlers in the area. Many are parishioners of St. Mary's Holy Dormition Orthodox Church which owns four parcels of land in the corridor. Church property can't be taken by CDOT but the church signed a not for sale letter anyway. They're saying they can't be condemned and they will not sell. The Mormon Church in Weld County also signed a letter.
The St. Mary's community extends into southern Elbert County. On the Elbert side of the county line the width of the corridor is blocked by unwilling sellers for several miles. Other points in the county are nearly blocked. Adams and especially Arapahoe counties are making good progress. In Arapahoe it looks like people have been visiting neighbors to enlist them.
Nearly one third of the length of the corridor is in Weld County. The corridor there is completely blocked at one point and nearly blocked in other areas. The situation is complicated by state land and large blocks of land belonging to the City of Thornton. The Weld map that I work on had to be reduced so much for the webpage that home sites of several acres don't even show. And there are dozens of them that have signed letters and they each present an obstacle to the Super Slab acquiring a right-of-way. The letters from the Wellington meeting haven't been marked on the maps yet, they should be up by the weekend. I expect this northern end of the corridor to fill up fast.
We are only one month into this project and showing very good progress. As time goes by more and more areas will fill in. We all know that there aren't enough willing sellers in this corridor to build 5% of the road, let alone the vast majority that CDOT would require.
New on 10/13 - Bennett & Wellington Meetings. The Super Slab route passes through Larimer County for only about 3 miles but 250 people attended the meeting in Wellington last Saturday. They live in a region of farms, lakes and wildlife areas and apparently have no intention of living next to the on ramp of this road to nowhere. Gladys Russell of the Northern Larimer County Alliance made the presentations along with Sharon Croghan, William Thomas and Mike Coan of the Save Our Homes Coalition from Weld County.
The Ft. Collins paper had this article on the meeting. ****************************** There will be a meeting on Sunday October 15 at 1:00p.m. at the VFW in Bennett. This is a "meet the candidates" meeting where you can ask questions of many of the area candidates. ****************************** As soon as I get the Not For Sale letters from the Wellington meeting updated I'll be posting the parcel maps. The corridor is already blocked by unwilling sellers in southern Elbert County and in Weld County near Kersey. Other spots are almost blocked or blocked except for state land. By the way, the toll road would have to cross state land for 15 miles in northern Pueblo and southern El Paso counties. We will have about 900 parcels marked as "Not For Sale" after this initial drive. Don't let your land look like a welcome mat for toll road builders, if you live in the Super Slab corridor send a letter. Use the link at the top of the page , print the form and sign it, then send it to Jim Woodward at the address on the form.
New on 10/6 - Meet the Neighbors - Part 2. If you are in the corridor and haven't signed a "Not For Sale" letter yet please do so. We will be posting the maps before long. Already it would take a road about 300 miles long to traverse the 210 miles without using eminent domain. But we want a lot more. Lets show how unwelcome this project is. You can download the letter at www.stupidslab.com , use the link at the top of the page. ****************************** A private investigator visited the website about a week ago. I hope you found what you were looking for Michael. I have an unpaid parking ticket in Los Angeles from the 1980s so you'll want to check into that. ****************************** There is a meeting in Wellington this Saturday from 7-10:00 PM at the Wellington Community Church, 8445 Third Street. ******************************
Meet the Neighbors - Part 2. In Part 1 we saw that Ray Wells' friend and business partner H. Joe Meheen owns 320 acres of land near the Front Range Airport in Adams County. The land isn't in the three mile wide corridor that is allowed by law, but Wells widened that to an illegal five miles in Adams County thus setting his pal up to go into the multi-modal transportation terminal business. In this part we see that another Wells associate owns land in and near the corridor and that the path may have been chosen to visit that property.
The Secretary of State's website lists Steve Balcerovich as a lobbyist for the Front Range Toll Road Company. A Steve Balcerovich with the same address is on the list of property owners within the Super Slab corridor in Elbert County. He owns a 640 acre parcel along Kiowa-Bennett Rd. in north Elbert County that is about half in and half out of the corridor. The 640 acres just south of that belongs to another Balcerovich and 320 acres just to the west belongs to a third Balcerovich. I don't know that the three are related but it seems likely. The three of them own more than 2700 acres in Elbert County.
In July we discovered that Kellogg, Brown & Root had contacted the counties along the corridor to get the names and addresses of property owners. When we obtained the map that KBR had provided to Elbert County the first question I had was why there was a pronounced kink in the road east of Kiowa. The kink hadn't been a feature of earlier versions of the map. One possibility raised was that the route was chosen to avoid the property of some very prominent and wealthy out-of-state owners. A look at the Balcerovich properties may provide another explanation. That "kinked" route crossed 6 Balcerovich properties totaling 2847 acres. After we called attention to this strange route Wells replaced it with the older, straighter version of the map. That version crosses parts of two Balcerovich properties totaling only about 350 acres.
What does it mean? Beats me. Maybe Wells created the contorted route to aid the development of 2800 acres in the corridor and then changed it when we became suspicious. Whatever the exact reason it seems clear that it was some sort of economic gerrymandering unrelated to considerations of terrain or environment. It's one more piece of evidence that the purpose of this whole project is illegitimate. It isn't just residents of the corridor that wonder what the real purpose of this "multi modal transportation corridor" is, journalists, politicians and everyone else believe that there is more than a desire to speed up the trip from Cheyenne to Raton.
New on 9/29/ - Meeting Report From Elbert - Here is a report on last night's meeting in Elbert repeated from the Toll Road Warriors Blog.
This evening over 200 Elbert County residents attended the TR Warrior meeting at the Exhibition Hall in Kiowa, CO. The High Plains Coalition For Responsible Transportation Policy sponsored the event. This was yet just another in a series of meetings taking place up and down the Super Slab corridor to inform parcel owners of their options and rights.
Tollman was the mc for the evening. I got to introduce quite a few familiar faces to the crowd. The following people spoke briefly to the audience about their position on the proposed Super Slab project. Since our coalition is non-partisan, and this issue has nothing to do with red, blue, or purple, the speakers steered clear of campaigning. A gracious thank you to all who took time from extremely hectic schedules to spend a couple of hours with us.
Sheriff Bill Frangis (Elbert, CO) Brian D. Weiss (candidate for Sheriff, Elbert, CO) Commissioner John Metli (Elbert, CO) Dale Goetz (candidate for Commissioner, Elbert, CO) Representative Debbie Stafford (HD40) Matt Bryant (candidate, HD40) Senator Greg Brophy (SD01) Jim Bowen (candidate SD01)
After our guests spoke of their involvement and/or commitment to protecting Elbert County from the Super Slab, Robert Thomasson gave a very brief summary of the history of the Front Range Toll Road Company. Then Rick Brown addressed the registered letters the Super Slabbers sent out and the legislations that has been passed to protect property owners. The end of the meeting was focused on what citizens can do and how they can become part of the solution.
Many, many people found their parcel numbers and filled out the form letter to CDOT with their intent to not sell their property. Those same folks filled out their letters to the Transportation Commission to be put on their mailing list for notification of meetings. We got three pages of e-mails to add to our TR Warrior E-Mail Update list. Quite a few residents stayed afterwards to get questions answered, and it seemed that everyone left with a bit more hope and determination than they came in with.
John and Shellane Dorman manned the merchandise table and did an outstanding job selling t-shirts, hats and Not For Sale yard signs. If anyone is interest in purchasing one of our 'No Super Slab' t-shirts or hats, or Toll Road Warrior hats or t-shirts, please contact John Dorman at hpcrtp@yahoo.com.
There are more meetings scheduled along the corridor in the coming days. Please check the schedule on stupidslab.com or nosuperslab.org for the most current information regarding dates, locations, and times.
Thank you to all Elbert residents who came to the meeting tonight. We hope that we inspired you to become involved and to help preserve not only your land and dreams but also, in the process, those of your neighbors and friends. We're all in this together. Don't forget it.
Tollman
New on 9/26 - Meetings, letters & maps - There are two meetings this week. The first is Wednesday. Sept. 27 at 6PM in the Platte Valley High School Cafeteria at 901 Campbell in Kersey, CO (east of Greeley.) The other is on Thursday, Sept. 28 from 7-9PM at the Exhibition Hall of the Fairgrounds in Kiowa, CO. ****************************************** If you haven't sent a "Not For Sale" letter to Jim Woodward yet please do so. At the meeting Friday in Pueblo about 35 people signed letters representing more than 4,000 acres of land. I've marked those on the map and we've almost achieved the first total block of the corridor by owners who won't sell. The area west of Calhan in El Paso County is also filling in. But we want to show more than blocked areas; we want to show how many people are not willing to sell their land for the toll road. Ask your relatives and neighbors in the corridor to sign one. You can get the parcel numbers from the letters sent out by the toll road company or look them up on Stupidslab. Contact Jim Woodward or me if you need assistance. The forms and directions are at www.stupidslab.com/NotForSale.htm . ****************************************** At the meeting last Wednesday in Galeton there were 300 + in attendance. A pretty good crowd for a small farming community. Many in attendance own property outside the corridor. Sharon Croghan spoke on the history of Super Slab and opposition, Bill Thomas on the physical aspects of a toll road, Rick Brown discussed how we can use the legislation and other means to stop the Super Slab and Mike Coan described how each person could get involved to protect their property.
Weld County Commissioner Dave Long attended and spoke about the need for commissioners to take a neutral stand on the Super Slab, but at this point,the Super Slab is not a project they see as viable. He discussed the meeting they had with Ken Smith, Prairie Falcon's spokesman, at which he mirrored Commissioner Madsen's account of the meeting. Smith brought no real information about the project to the meeting with the commissioners; PFPE has done no traffic studies, no feasibility studies and in Commissioner Long's opinion, have not studied the route through Weld County very well. He pointed out, with a nice map, which showed the corridor cutting through prime irrigated farm land and an alternate route only a few miles east, missing all the irrigated land, many county roads and had half the number of property owners. When asked why PFPE choose the route they did, reportedly their response was this route gave them the grade they need for the rail road. The route 5 miles further east, according to Weld County engineers, has the exact same grade as the current proposed route. Commissioner Long also said he believes the PFPE route to be a moving target. "The corridor is not set in stone and could be moved at any time, people on either side of the 3 mile corridor should remain concerned" explained Long.
Also in attendance was Scott Renfroe, candidate for Dist. 13 and Duane Leise, candidate for Weld County Commissioner at large. Neither spoke, but stayed around to answers questions after the meeting. Both candidates have offered support for our cause and encouraged corridor residents to stay organized and work together. ***************************************** Last Friday in Pueblo 100 people attended the meeting at County High. Participants were Joe Pantaleo of Eastern Plains Citizens Coalition of Pueblo, Robert and Gaye Thomasson of the High Plains Coalition for Responsible Transportation Policy and retired attorney Rick Brown, also of HPCRTP. They explained the history of the Front Range Toll Road Company, legislation passed in 2006 and what we should do to be ready for the Super Slab's future moves. The story from the Chieftain is HERE.
New on 9/21 - Pueblo Meeting Friday - There will be a meeting at Pueblo County High Friday 9/22 at 7pm in the Commons One of the speakers will be Rick Brown, an attorney from Elbert County. He will explain the new laws passed this year and the process that the Super Slab would have to follow in the future. I will have copies of the "Not For Sale" letter to CDOT that corridor property owners can sign. I will have the list of owner names and parcel numbers for Pueblo County so they can be filled out at the meeting and then I'll send them up to Jim Woodward in Wellington.
The blank form for the "Not For Sale" letter is available at Not For Sale. Please sign one of these so Jim can present thousands to CDOT and I can color you land on the map as not for sale to the Super Slab. We've had people return them for land areas from 1/10 acre to over 1000 acres. Arapahoe County seems to be in the lead. It looks like some people there took them to neighbors which is what we need people everywhere to do. The people in southeastern Colorado made a map like this to disprove the Army's claim that many ranchers were willing to sell their land for expansion of Ft. Carson's maneuver area. Let's show the same thing about the Super Slab.
New on 9/18 - Cindy Bulinski says of Sunday's meeting in Bennett "We had between 250, and 300 people - full house - as much as the VFW could pack in - standing room only, most of that was packed shoulder to shoulder."
Here is Channel 4's story. ************************************* Meet the Neighbors - Part 1. This is the first in a series of items about some of our fellow landowners in the three mile wide Super Slab corridor.
Among the many corporations that Ray Wells has spawned over the years two were collaborations with a man named H. Joe Meheen. Another corporation, Sky Knights, LLC was formed by Wells' wife Lorrie with Mr. Meheen. The Wells-Meheen company Cherry Creek Aviation once entered into a 30 year agreement with the City of Steamboat Springs to provide aviation services at the Steamboat Springs Airport. This is a small city airport and not the bigger Yampa Valley Airport where the airline flights land. Within a year the situation was so unsafe that Steamboat cancelled the deal. Not one to go away when his business services aren't wanted (don't we know!), he sued to be retained but lost. See STEAMBOAT for background on this. The purpose of another of their companies, Whiskey Mike, LLC isn't known.
One of Meheen's own companies, Meheen Engineering, owns 320 acres of undeveloped land in Adams County just northeast of the Front Range Airport. This parcel of property isn't on the first list of owners in the Super Slab corridor created for Kellogg, Brown & Root. But KBR asked for a second list that included all parcels in any square-mile section crossed by the corridor boundary. They didn't do this in any other county and it violates the law which limits toll road corridors to a three mile width. In Adams County they notified all owners in a five mile wide zone. Among the names on the expanded list is Meheen Engineering and their 320 acres. This land is perfectly situated to be part of the proposed multi-modal transportation terminal at Front Range Airport.
Some other business ventures of H. Joe Meheen:
Transcontinents Trading LLC - 5/28/96 - 10/01/02 (Dissolved) "To promote trade, exchange of goods and services between U.S.A., Middle East, Europe and Africa." Business partner Saeed M. Darya of Kuwait.
Colorado Minerals, LLC 6/24/96 - 1/1/04 (Dissolved) "The primary purpose of CMLLC is to option, mine, and sell minerals; specifically along Steels Fork in El Paso County."
Ecochem International Corp. 6/17/93 - Present "The objectives and purposes for which this corporation is organized and the nature of the business to be carried on by it are as follows: 1. To carry on the business of providing consulting services and manufacturing in the following fields: A. Environmental, chemical industry, cellulose insulation industry and mining; B. Represent manufacturers of equipment and machinery as a licensed distributor; C. Industrial engineering, design and management, involving all types of industrial plants but with more specific involvement in waste disposal; D. Mining and energy development focused on engineering for extraction, retention, transportation and disposal of mind minerals; and E. Hazardous waste treatment;"
Cascade International, Inc. 1/27/98 - Present Purpose not known.
Meheen is on CDOT's list of Prequalified Consultants.
New on 9/15 - Here's a report sent in from Keenesburg about their meeting on Thursday night:
We had 350 + people in attendance. Sharon Croghan, Save our Homes Coalition (SOHC) Chairman, opened with introductions and FRTR and opposition history.
William Thomas, Weld County corridor resident, SOHC, explained the physical aspects of a multi-modal transportation corridor - what this monster might look like.
Rick Brown, Elbert County and High Plains Coalition for Responsible Transportation Policy (HPCRTP) member, helped everyone to understand the propaganda in the PFPE letter, "this isn't a done deal." He explained the complicated process a private toll road must go through before it can even begin, he also discussed other avenues available to stop the toll road, especially the need for massive public involvement.
Bob Hoban, attorney, discussed eminent domain law and the importance of knowing who knocks on your door with an eviction notice and the FRTR cannot condemn you land - you can willingly sell, but you can not be force to sell for a private toll road, at this time.
Mike Coan spoke about what people can do to get involved, offering specific ideas and suggestions about what people can do.
Mark Hillman, Colorado State Treasurer, was in attendance and spoke about the effect 1200 people protesting HB1030 had on the legislature - it made the difference in the bill passing or being killed and killed it was!
Rob Masden, a Weld County Commissioner, spoke about his opposition from the beginning, to the Super Slab, he believes it to be a land grab and still does. He spoke about the meeting they had with Ken Smith and how Prairie Falcon has no real plan, no money and does not have the support of Weld County Commissioners. He spoke of encouraging all the counties in the corridor to enact 1041 regs in response to PFPE and planned to meet with county commissioners from throughout the corridor concerning the Super Slab plan.
The petition, CDOT request letter and "no intent to sell letter" all went over well. *********************************************** I'm glad to hear that a lot of the "Not for Sale" letters were signed. Be sure to sign and send one and ask your neighbors to do it too. We especially need those big ranch and farm owners to sign a letter, if you know any please give them a call. The letters and a sample of the maps we'll do are HERE. *********************************************** The next meeting on the schedule is Sunday, Sept. 17 at 1pm in Bennett at the Tri-Valley VFW Hall, 115 Palmer Ave. Here's a story about Bennett. In March 2005 I went to a meeting here in Pueblo to hear what this proposed toll road was about. Super Slab lobbyist Kathy Oatis told the crowd that the Super Slab would be great for Pueblo's economy. I asked her for an example of a town anywhere in America that got an economic boost from being bypassed by the highway and railroads. She couldn't come up with one. Asked where the benefit would come from she said she thought there would be a lot of "possibilities." She said maybe UPS would build a big terminal at the Pueblo Airport! The best she could come up with for sure was jobs in toll booths. After the meeting one of her posse came up to me and said people in the little town of Bennett, Colorado were just thrilled about the Super Slab. She said they had train tracks through town and the Super Slab would move the train traffic out of Bennett. In the nearly two years since then I've studied enough maps to know that the train tracks through Bennett go east and west. So I guess this Super Slab route is going to be so attractive that it will make the engineer of an eastbound train change his mind and decide to go south. It's just that good!
The complete schedule of meeting is below in the 9/12 entry. You can download this schedule to post on bulletin boards Acrobat File. (Marsha Looper has just let me know that there will be an El Paso County Toll Road meeting on Wednesday, September 27, 7:00-9:00 pm.) ********************************************** Weld County Commissioner Rob Masden recommended that counties in the Super Slab corridor adopt 1041 (land use) regulations to make sure they can protect their interests when someone wants to build a project like the Super Slab. There is a good explanation of 1041 regulations HERE. There are links to each county's 1041 regulations at that page. It would be good to find out which county in Colorado has the best regulations and use those as an example for the seven counties in the Super Slab corridor. If there are any experts in the crowd please let me know.
New on 9/14 - Join the "vast majority" who don't want to sell. CDOT's statement that they would only condemn land if the Super Slab had first bought "the vast majority" of the land from willing sellers gave Jim Woodward of Wellington an idea. He has drafted a letter for landowners in the corridor to fill out and sign stating that they have no intention of selling their land to the Super Slab. Jim will collect the letters and present them to CDOT and I will color in those parcels on maps. The ranchers around the Army's Pinon Canyon Maneuvering area in southern Colorado did this to show that the Army was lying when they said they have lots of willing sellers lined up. The Army uses this area for war games about 2 weeks out of the year and they want to expand it from 250,000 acres to 1 million acres. The opponents must have 500,000 acres filled in as unwilling to sell. You can see their results on the Maps page at www.pinoncanyon.com.
Use the link at the top of this page to download the letter and see an example of what a map will look like. You can get your parcel numbers off of your notification letter from the toll road company or from the list on the corridor map pages also linked at the top of the page. Email me or Jim Woodward ( jbw@frii.com ) if you need help.
Speaking of land that is not for sale reminds me of the Frequently Asked Questions page at the toll road website. Have you seen it? The very first question is "I want to sell my property; what should I do?" What a load of crap! If anyone has asked them that I'll eat a tractor tire. It's as phoney as a three dollar bill. But just in case anyone really wants to know the answer to what they should do to sell their property here is the real answer. Put a "For Sale" sign in your yard, or call a realtor. Don't wait around for years to get an insulting offer for a portion of your land from the Super Slab. Their spokesman told the Pueblo Chieftain that the comments they are receiving "range from ‘How soon can I sell my property?’ to things you couldn't print in the newspaper." I believe about half of that.
New on 9/13 - They're not mistakes they're "issues." On Wednesday the Pueblo Chieftain reported the errors that I have found in the Super Slab's corridor maps and mailing lists. The maps they recorded with county clerks in the seven corridor counties show a 60 square mile segment of the corridor from south of Pueblo to a point near the Huerfano County line but they didn't mail notices to anyone in that area. In today's Chieftain the Super Slab spokesman, Jason Hopfer, replied by saying in effect "We didn't make a mistake, we'll correct the mistake, the mistake wasn't our fault, we were in a hurry."
From the article: "Jason Hopfer said his company verified that the list of people who received notice was correct. Opponents of the project said the map recorded in Pueblo County doesn't match the list of property owners, but Hopfer said the mapping and the notice list were done by two different contractors." Oh, okay. The law says that they must file a "map of the three-mile corridor with the clerk and recorder 's office in the county of residence of each person to whom the company provided written notice." It doesn't say that the map and list can be different if you use different contractors. He goes on to say "If there are issues with the maps, we'll address that, but we want people to know that if they got a notice, the notice is correct." That may be true in Pueblo County but not in Adams County where people more than a mile outside of the corridor got letters. Are they going to send apologies to those people who have been incorrectly notified that their homes may be taken?
"This work had to be done under a 90-day deadline, and it involves a three-mile corridor over a 210-mile span through seven counties," Hopfer said. "That's a pretty daunting task." Oh yeah, much harder than actually building a highway and railroad. If they couldn't do it in 90 days why could I find the mistakes 9 minutes? The real issue is that the Super Slab wouldn't help the traffic situation in Denver but even if it would this bunch of goofballs aren't qualified to do it. Potential investors will be running for the exits if they have any sense.
Here is today's Chieftain article with the creative excuses.
Here is an article from Tuesday's Rocky Mountain News.
New on 9/12 - Incorrect times were listed for the Kersey and Wellington meetings. Here is the corrected list: KEENESBURG, CO, Thursday 9/14/06 6:00 PM, New Weld Central High School Gym, Hwy 52 and Rd 59 BENNETT, CO, Sunday 9/17/06 1:00 PM, Tri-Valley VFW Hall, 115 Palmer Avenue GALETON, CO, Wednesday 9/20/06 6:00 PM, Galeton Fire House, WCR 74 in Galeton PUEBLO, CO, Friday 9/22/06 7:00 PM, Pueblo County High School, Commons Area, 1050 35th Lane KERSEY, CO, Wednesday 9/27/06 6:00 PM, Platte Valley High School Cafeteria, 901 Campbell (Hwy 34 East of Kersey) KIOWA, CO, Thursday, 9/28/06 7-9:00 PM, Exhibition Hall - Kiowa Fairgrounds WELLINGTON, CO, Saturday 10/07/06 7-10:00 PM, Wellington Community Church, 8445 Third Street ******************************************* The Pueblo Chieftain ran two articles on Super Slab issues today including the mismatch between FRTR's mailing and their actual claimed corridor. Foes resume campaign against proposed toll road. and Toll roads involving condemned land require CDOT OK.
New on 9/11 - Correction to Meeting Times. The correct time for the Kersey meeting is 6PM (not 3PM) and the correct time for the Wellington meeting is 7PM (not 6PM).
New on 9/11 - Seven Meetings Announced. Super Slab opponents have scheduled seven meetings from Wellington in the north to Pueblo in the south. There will be different committees presenting at each meeting so go to more than one if you can. First up is Keenesburg this Thursday, Sept. 14 at 6:00 PM at the New Weld Central High School Gym, Hwy 52 and Rd 59. Attorney Rick Brown will explain Colorado's toll road laws and the procedures that the Super Slab company would have to follow. There will also be a presentation on toll road issues generally and what actions we can take to protect our properties. The schedule for the rest of the meetings is included in the letter below.
The following announcement has been sent to the press. It announces the letter that is being mailed to all corridor residents and gives information on meetings and contact information.
PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
SUPER SLAB OPPONENTS KICK OFF INFORMATION BLITZ
Opponents of the Super Slab, recently re-branded as the Prairie Falcon Parkway Express, have begun a campaign to inform residents of the three mile wide, 210 mile long Super Slab corridor of their ability to fight and stop the project. The campaign was prompted by notices mailed by Super Slab developers to more than 4,000 corridor residents. The opposition's first step this week will be to send a letter to property owners in the corridor (copy attached). This will be followed by community meetings.
The Super Slab is the brain child of developer Ray Wells, whose Front Range Toll Road Company formerly could exercise the power of eminent domain to take property in the corridor, which until a few weeks ago was 12 miles wide. This year, in response to citizen pressure, Colorado's legislature passed laws taking the power of eminent domain away from private toll road companies. The new law also requires the corridor to be narrowed to three miles, and mandates environmental and planning procedures which give the public the opportunity to kill the project. Property for the Super Slab can still be taken by eminent domain if project developers enter into a partnership with the Colorado Department of Transportation, but only after the project is approved in a multilayered planning process involving regional and state planning commissions.
Recently, developers have hired a new spokesman, renamed the project, and issued statements claiming that their proposed 1200 foot wide toll road, railroad and utility corridor will protect the high plains habitat. "The Super Slab's re-branding is merely spin; it doesn't reflect a real change," said Rick Brown of Elbert County's High Plains Coalition for Responsible Transportation Policy. "This project is still about enriching a few people at the expense of residents of Colorado's high plains."
Sharon Croghan, one of the leaders of Weld County Super Slab opponents stated, "A lot of people are afraid. We plan to work hard to educate the public about the problems with this proposal and the new procedures available to stop it. The fight has just begun."
CONTACT:
Pueblo: Joe Pantaleo email: pantaleofarms@hotmail.com
Elbert: Robert Thomasson Ph: 303.648.3098 or Rick Brown Ph: 303.648.3214 email: hpcrtp@yahoo.com
Adams/Arapahoe: Cindy Bulinski, Chuck Saxton Ph: 303.550.8433 email: tollroad7900@aol.com
Weld: Sharon Croghan email: weld@nosuperslab.org
Larimer: Gladys Russell email: baracuda@frii.com
(END OF PRESS RELEASE)
(THE LETTER SENT TO CORRIDOR RESIDENTS)
Dear Toll Road Corridor Property Owner:
You are one of more than 4000 Coloradans who recently received a letter from the Prairie Falcon Parkway Express (also known as the Super Slab) informing you of Front Range Toll Road, Ltd.'s plan to develop a 1200 foot wide toll road, rail and utility right-of-way within the three mile wide, 210 mile long corridor where you own property. This letter is being sent by citizens who banded together in early 2005 and persuaded the Colorado legislature to defeat special interest legislation sought by the Super Slab's backers.
This year, citizens from throughout the Super Slab corridor convinced the legislature to overwhelmingly approve bills which take the power of eminent domain away from private toll road companies and require that the corridor be narrowed from twelve miles to three. The new laws also require that property owners be informed of the project and their rights (that's why you received the Super Slab letter). In addition, it creates a planning process requiring public participation and review of the Super Slab proposal by regional planning commissions and the Colorado Transportation Commission. Property for the Super Slab can still be taken by eminent domain if project developers enter into a partnership with the Colorado Department of Transportation, but only if the project is approved. The Super Slab letter has left many residents with the impression that the project is inevitable and that the only issues left to determine are how and where to build it. This is not true. The new laws give us the tools to fight and kill this project by showing that it will not relieve traffic congestion in the I-25 corridor and does not serve the public interest. We believe the only purpose this project will serve is to enrich developers of land in or near the proposed right-of-way. They will get rich at the expense of homeowners, ranchers, and farmers whose property is now threatened by their scheme.
Super Slab opponents will be holding meetings at the times and places listed at the bottom of this page. At these meetings, we will describe the background of the project, the basis for our opposition, and your rights as citizens. In the meantime, if you have internet access you can keep up with developments by consulting the web sites at www.stupidslab.com, www.nosuperslab.org, and www.frontrangetollroad.blogspot.com.
There is no need to panic. The beginning of this project is a long way off, and, we believe that, working together, we can stop it. For further information you can e-mail or call the individuals whose names appear on the outside of this mailing.
(END OF LETTER)
Below is the list of Super Slab meetings, arranged by date, not county.
KEENESBURG, CO Thursday 9/14/06 6:00 PM New Weld Central High School Gym Hwy 52 and Rd 59
BENNETT, CO Sunday 9/17/06 1:00 PM Tri-Valley VFW Hall 115 Palmer Avenue
GALETON, CO Wednesday 9/20/06 6:00 PM Galeton Fire House WCR 74 in Galeton
PUEBLO, CO Friday 9/22/06 7:00 PM Pueblo County High School Commons Area 1050 35th Lane
KERSEY, CO Wednesday 9/27/06 6:00 PM Platte Valley High School Cafeteria 901 Campbell (Hwy 34 East of Kersey)
KIOWA, CO Thursday, 9/28/06 7-9:00 PM Exhibition Hall - Kiowa Fairgrounds
WELLINGTON, CO Saturday 10/07/06 7-10:00 PM Wellington Community Church 8445 Third Street
New on 9/8 - Added the list of owner names for Larimer County. Use the maps link at the top of the page.
New on 9/7 - Super Slab Botched the Notification Mailing. Before I get to the problems with the Front Range Toll Road Company's mailing I need to mention that we are going to do a mailing of our own. Here is the Sept. 1 posting from Toll Road Warriors Blog. Please send them a donation to support sending a letter to all residents of the corridor. This will benefit us all and get the word to people who still don't know that there is an organized opposition to the toll road. (From Toll Road Warrior Blog:) Last Wednesday (Aug. 30), Toll Road Warriors from counties throughout the Super Slab corridor met to plan the next steps in the campaign to protect our property and environment from the so-called Prairie Falcon Parkway Express (It's still the Super Slab.) Our first step will be to mail accurate information to every property owner in the corridor. The mailing will inform them of their rights and what they can do to help fight and kill this project. We will also inform them of the schedule for local Toll Road Warrior community meetings.
Mailings cost money, and we're estimating right now the cost to be in the thousands of dollars. In the past, it has been the philosophy of the High Plains Coalition For Responsible Transportation Policy (in Elbert) to produce items to sell for fund raising, ie, t-shirts, hats, calendars, sets of note cards, cd's, etc. That worked well. We spent the money on mailings to the entire county of Elbert (and still get calls off of that flyer!) and on the rental of buses to take citizens downtown to the State Capitol Building for rallies and hearings over the past two legislative sessions. This coalition has never solicited cash donations, though we have received some very generous ones. We thank every single person for their contributions to the cause. It HAS made a difference.
We still have a small amount of money in our treasury, but it isn't enough to take care of the task at hand.
In a previous entry, we listed steps citizens can take to help stop the Super Slab project. Here is one more: You can donate money to help defray the cost of a mailing to every parcel owner in the 210 mile corridor. Your donation will help empower thousands of citizens whose homes and land are threatened by the Super Slab.
We want to send the mailers ASAP. If you are able to make a contribution, please send it to:
High Plains Coalition For Responsible Transportation Policy P.O Box 801 Kiowa, Colorado 80117 ******************************
There are lots of recent posts and info at Toll Road Warriors Blog and NoSuperSlab Forums. Sign up there and post your comments. ******************************
On Tuesday I went to the courthouse in Pueblo to see what papers had been filed by the Super Slab. A man named Ken Smith had been in on Aug. 28 and recorded 12 pages and two large maps. The first page is a letter informing the county clerk that they have formed a toll road company and advising them of the route. The second page is titled "Notice to Construct a Toll Road And Disclaimer of Interest." HB-1003 requires them to record this statement that their toll road claim does not give them any sort of easement or rights to the property in the corridor. It is signed by Ray Wells and William Waller (as secretary of Spirit of Cheyenne, Inc). These are followed by four pages of copies of the recent amendments to his corporations (including the map that was filed). Then there are the six pages of the letter that he mailed out to landowners. The first two pages of the filing are on www.stupidslab.com . Use the "Maps" link at the top of the page.
The two maps are about 2x3 feet and laminated in plastic. One shows the full length of the corridor and the other shows the Pueblo County section only. These maps were produced by Felsburg Holt & Ullevig of Denver and have the corridor boundaries as a blue line on an aerial photo. They are like the maps on the Plucked Pigeon Parkway site and others we have received as Acrobat files in recent months. The notices we received say that the large maps at the County Clerks office are more detailed but they are not. They are larger but no clearer. They still don't have roads labeled so that you can tell where the corridor really is. And there is a difference between these maps and the 4,000 maps they mailed out to landowners in the corridor. The maps that were mailed to us show the corridor ending at Stem Beach just south of Pueblo. This is also what was provided to the Pueblo County GIS office by Kellogg, Brown and Root in order to identify landowners in the corridor. The maps recorded with the seven county clerks and filed with the secretary of state in two corporate filings show the corridor continuing FOR AN ADDITIONAL 20 MILES SOUTH OF PUEBLO. So their official paperwork claims about 60 square miles or 38,400 acres of land that they didn't tell us about. And they didn't send the notifications required by law to any landowners in those 38,400 acres which includes parts of Colorado City and Hatchet Ranch.
In Adams County Kellogg, Brown and Root asked for the names of the owners of any parcel in a section (1 mile square) crossed by the corridor boundary. That resulted in the owners in a 5 mile wide corridor being notified by certified mail that they are in the toll road corridor. Why they did this in Adams and not elsewhere is a mystery but it resulted in unjustly alarming the owners of about 36 square miles or 23,000 acres of land.
Front Range Toll Road Company hired one of the biggest companies in the world to help them with this notification process and still they've made a big mess of it. Almost 100 square miles of land was handled incorrectly. In some cases notices were erroneously sent that must have the recipients worried sick. In other cases people who should have been warned were not. This is the simplest step in the whole process and they couldn't get it right. They should be prevented from going on. The Colorado Constitution, Article XV (Corporations) Section 3 says "Power to revoke, alter or annul charter: The general assembly shall have the power to alter, revoke or annul any charter of incorporation now existing and revocable at the adoption of this constitution, or any that may hereafter be created, whenever in their opinion it may be injurious to the citizens of the state, in such manner, however, that no injustice shall be done to the corporators." This corporation is already proving injurious and it will only get worse. And there would be no injustice to the corporators because they don't even own the land that they intend to develop. Ray Wells oversaw the creation of a few left turn lanes at the Denver Tech Center. That's his highway building experience. He's not qualified to take this on and shouldn't be allowed to make a mess of seven counties. Shut him down.
New on 9/5 - Added a list of corridor landowners to the Arapahoe County map page. Link is at top of page.
New on 9/2 - I heard from several sources today that CDOT has named a person to be the point of contact for Super Slab matters. Some people worried that this signalled the beginning of a cooperative effort between CDOT and the super slab company. The person named was Herman Stockinger who we know well as CDOT's Legislative Liason. He appears before all of the committees dealing with transportation issues and presents the CDOT position. They know him so well that they just call on "Herman" to come up and speak (he's like Elvis or Cher in that respect.)
I contacted him and asked a few questions. He replied that he had just been drafting and posting a memo on the issue. The text of the memo and a link are below. Here is one of the highlights: "The vast majority of necessary property for the toll road itself would need to be voluntarily sold to the toll road company before CDOT would consider utilizing eminent domain." There are many more. So far all that Ray Wells has is a website and a few paid toadies. He can't even see the starting line from where he is. We need to fight this thing tooth and nail but we will win. *************************************************
The following is available as an Acrobat file from CDOT.What is the Colorado Department of Transportation's (CDOT) role with respect to the Prairie Falcon Parkway Express (formerly known as the Front Range Toll Road)?
House Bill 06-1003, signed into law this year by Governor Bill Owens, not only requires a private toll road company follow the same environmental study process that CDOT would follow on a Colorado State Highway, but states that a toll road company shall not begin work on environmental documentation until it has obtained preliminary approval from the CDOT's Executive Director that the scope of the planned environmental study and documentation is consistent with the department's Environmental Stewardship Guide.
For CDOT, substantial Environmental Impact Statements take years to prepare and complete (three to five years on average). After completion of the environmental document, each Metropolitan Planning Organization and Transportation Planning Region, as well as the Colorado Transportation Commission have the ability to decide whether the project should be included in the applicable regional and statewide transportation plans. In other words, a project will not move forward unless the Denver Regional Council of Governments, North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization, Pueblo Area Council of Governments, Eastern Transportation Planning Region, Central Front Range Transportation Planning Region, and the Colorado Transportation Commission all agree that the project serves a public need,provides a significant public benefit, is reasonable and feasible, and are satisfied that any environmental issues identified through the environmental study process have been reasonably mitigated.
If all of the above happens on a private toll road corridor, and the company is unable to purchase all the necessary land for the toll road, they may enter a public-private partnership with CDOT, and CDOT may, if necessary, exercise the power of eminent domain "only for the purposes of acquiring property and rights-of-way necessary for the completion of a toll road or toll highway open to the public." The vast majority of necessary property for the toll road itself would need to be voluntarily sold to the toll road company before CDOT would consider utilizing eminent domain.
Right now, CDOT has no plans to condemn homes. The Prairie Falcon Parkway Express filed their initial project map with the county showing a very wide alignment but the reality is a fraction of the land will be required. It is in the Prairie Falcon Parkway Expressway's best interest to pay fair market value for any needed right of way and condemnation could only occur at the end of the process, just before construction, after the state and all the regional planning entities have agreed with the issues noted above.
CDOT would only condemn the land to "finish the road." To be clear, the vast majority of land necessary would have to be purchased voluntarily before CDOT would consider condemnation to "finish the road."
CDOT remains committed to an open public process for transportation planning and this project in particular. CDOT has not taken a position in support of or in opposition of this project and does not anticipate doing so anytime in the near future. Even if CDOT approves the scope of environmental study, still, that in no way implies support for the project. Instead that approval would mean that CDOT believes it is appropriate to examine the project's feasibility and impacts.
To date, CDOT has not received any request for consideration of this project. When or if that does happen, this discussion would take place at a formal meeting of the state Transportation Commission. If you wish to be added to an email distribution list for the Transporatation Commission monthly agenda, please contact Dianne.cavaliere@dot.state.co.us. In addition, anyone can view each month's Transportation Commission agenda by going to Commission Agenda. Additionally, as new information on this project becomes available, CDOT will post updates on its web site and notify those on the distribution list at that time.
New on 9/2 - The Colorado Citizens for Property Rights held a meeting Thursday night at Calhan High School. The gym had been set up for the crowd to sit in the bleachers on one side but before meeting time those seats were full. So the podium and projection screen were moved and the bleachers on the other side were rolled out. Those seats soon filled and about 80 people had to stand at the end of the room. I estimated 500 people and so did KOAA TV.
Marsha Looper gave the presentation beginning with a history of Ray Wells and the Front Range Toll Road Company (super slab, which is now trying to get people to call it something else.) She then described how HB-1003, which was passed this year, will require them to go through a long application and approval process. In fact the notices they've sent out are required by HB-1003, the deadline to send them is Sept. 4. They would like us to believe that they have done a great favor by narrowing the corridor to 3 miles but that also is a requirement of HB-1003. These and other provisions were enacted because of our pressure on the state legislature, not because Ray Wells suddenly decided to share this information.
Then Marsha listed some actions that we will need to take including organizing, communicating, and participating in opposition activities. She said that Ray Wells may be relying on the eminent domain powers of railroads to take property and that there may need to be legislation to address that. She suggested posting no trespassing signs on property that toll road surveyors may want to enter and also emailing or calling county commissioners and other politicians to let them know our concerns and ask for their support.
She gave a series of "talking points" including the fact that studies have shown that the super slab isn't feasible and won't relieve traffic problems on I-25. Also she pointed out that the Ports to Plains project already addresses the issue of providing a truck route east of I-25. And she cited the series of Denver Post articles that exposed the financial aspects of toll roads around the country.
She then answered questions from the audience. Most questions concerned the details of the super slab's intentions and what we can do about it. A few people are feeling doomed but most seemed to agree that now it's personal and we have just begun to fight.
The three southern Colorado TV stations did filmed reports but I didn't see anything in the newspapers so far.
New on 8/30 - Web traffic at stupidslab.com has been way up with the recent news coverage so I have a request for some of you Denver Metro Area and Colorado Springs people who are looking in. When traffic on I-25 slows to a crawl take a look at the people in the other cars around you. How many of them look like they are going to or from work like you? And how many of them look like they might have come down from Wyoming and are on their way to New Mexico (or vice versa)? I know you can't tell for sure by looking but you probably have a hunch whether the people around you are headed home to Highlands Ranch, or Aurora, or wherever within 75 miles. If you saw some out-of-state license plates or other clues indicating through-state travelers how many were there? And if they ALL took another route how much difference would it make? I doubt that one in a hundred of those rush hour vehicles is a likely candidate to take a road that bypasses Denver and Colorado Springs. DRCOG did a study that showed that only a tiny fraction of the 240,000 cars that travel I-25 daily in the Metro area are traveling all the way through the state. Ray Wells concedes that his toll road would only benefit the through-the-state motorists. But he says re-routing them will get traffic moving on I-25. It won't. So when Wells tries to sell this to you as a fix for gridlock don't believe it. You have us outnumbered at the ballot box and in every other way. If he hoodwinks you those of us in the country are doomed. The Super Slab won't help you but it could ruin us. Tell him no.
New on 8/30 - I previously sent a link for the Rocky Mountain News' article on Monday. Here is a second article that was in Tuesday's paper. Renamed 'Slab' revs ahead.
New on 8/30 - An editorial in today's New York Times opposes the Super Slab. The article is below. Here's the link but I think you'll have to sign up for free account for it to work: Don't Pave It Over.
Editorial Don’t Pave It Over Published: August 30, 2006 As if there were not enough poorly conceived and environmentally devastating developments in the American West, now we have Super Slab.The location of this latest struggle between nature and money is the Bijou Basin, southeast of Denver in Elbert County. It doesn’t have the staggering majesty of the Rocky Mountains, but it does have the delicate beauty of a rural, ranching grassland. In the entire county — one of the largest in the state — there are only some 200 miles of paved roads. And that, according to the Front Range Toll Road Corporation, headed by the developer Ray Wells, makes the Bijou Basin a perfect place to put a new high-speed toll road, called, colloquially, Super Slab.
Until recently, thanks to a 19th-century quirk in Colorado mining laws, developers of private toll roads had the right to condemn property by eminent domain and were exempt from most of the laws that governed the planning of ordinary roads. Watchful citizens and legislators who oppose Super Slab have changed all that, but Mr. Wells is determined to press ahead. His private toll road would bypass Denver, running 210 miles south from near Fort Collins to a spot near Pueblo. And it is also meant to include a new rail line and a utility corridor.
What it is really meant to do, of course, is serve as the spine for yet another wave of the uncontrolled development that Colorado residents and all Americans should be sick of. By nearly every measure this project is a boondoggle. The planners say it will cost about $2 billion, a gross underestimate. There is not nearly enough north-south commercial truck traffic to begin to pay for the road, which would require condemning a three-mile wide, 210-mile strip of land through seven rural counties.
About the only one who thinks this monster is needed is the developer. Super Slab should be stopped before the planning goes any further.
New on 8/29 - Jim Woodward of Wellington has been pursuing open records request with the Larimer County Courthouse for a month to get the map and list of landowners that was provided to Kellogg, Brown & Root. At first he was told that there had been no contact with KBR and that they might have bought the information through the automated website without contacting anyone. Today he was provided with the map and list and emails showing that KBR corresponded with a county employee who compiled the information and took payment for it. The map is on stupidslab.com and the list will be there soon. We still have nothing from Arapahoe County. It's interesting how the counties provide high quality readable maps to KBR, and I can create them with free software and publicly available data, but the Super Slab filings and even their website have blurry low resolution aerial pics and road names obscured. It's almost like they want them to be hard to read.
The Super Slab Company (I refuse to call it the Prairie Pansy Nature Trail) told the newspapers that they sent letters for 4000 parcels to about 2000 different landowners. The six county lists that we have list 6050 parcels, Arapahoe would increase that total by several hundred. Interesting.
The Super Slab's new spokesman was on KOAA Monday. They're trying to make it sound like the antelope and bunnies actually NEED a toll road, railroad, pipelines, etc. They have the new eco-snowjob name and website with the earth tones and prairie scenery (with no vehicles or road in sight). And they say they want to connect communities, like Pierce and Hanover need a super highway between them. It's all about spin and talking points and some absurd ones at that. Don't be fooled, it's the same old Super Slab and the same old land grab.
Some news stories:
Toll Road is Ramping Up - Denver Post
Revised Toll Road Still a Tough Sale - Springs Gazette.
Toll Road Planners Shrink Map - Pueblo Chieftain.
And check the Rocky Mountain News. They will have one but it hasn't posted yet as I'm posting this.
New on 8/28 - Jim Woodward of Wellington has been pursing open records requests in Larimer County for nearly a month. Today they finally provided the corridor map and owner list that they created for KBR. Click the maps link at the top of the page.
New on 8/28 - The Gazette and Rocky Mountain News are reporting that the letters have been sent and that FRTRC has a website. The FRTRC site is at Official SUPER SLAB site.
New on 8/28 - I just found an article on the Colorado Springs Gazette website that says the Front Range Toll Road Company has mailed letters to 4,000 landowners today. We knew that was coming within a few days but the shocker is that it says they want a 1,200 foot width. Last year they were saying they wanted 660 feet and that is about four times what a highway would require. It's official, Ray Wells has lost his mind! Gazette Article.
New on 8/28 - Kiwi Go Home. There is now a parcel map for Arapahoe County at the site. I haven't located any "official" information from the county so I copied that portion of the corridor boundary from the map filed by the company and pasted it onto a parcel map. There is no list of owner names but there is a link to the county GIS site that has the owner information.See Arapahoe Maps.
There is also another map that has been added to the Arapahoe page. Ray Wells bought two of William Tolbert's toll road companies (JICRO and Kiwi 2) and his railroad company (JICRA). But he didn't buy a toll road called Kiwi. Tolbert has amended the filing for Kiwi to comply with HB-1003. It is now Kiwi Corporation, PTR and the corridor is three miles wide. It runs straight east in Arapahoe County starting .2 miles west of E-470 at Quincy and ending 1 mile east of Kiowa-Bennett Road. The northern boundary is parallel to Quincy and 2.1 miles from it. The southern boundary is .9 miles south of Quincy.
The Kiwi corporations were formed by Tolbert along with his friends Gordon and Colleen Ryan. Colleen is a native of New Zealand and the couple have lived there in the past. See the Jan. 2, 2006 entry on the website for more about their history. Her New Zealand roots would seem to be the inspiration for the Kiwi name. Maybe we can file a toll road claim in New Zealand and call it the Prairie Dog Parkway or the Ugly American Express. These people sure have fun choosing cute names for other people's property.
Tolbert is required to send certified letters to all corridor occupants in the very near future. If you live in that corridor let me know. If you get a letter please send me a scan or a photocopy. Then he will have to spend $500,000 in three years on a road that will be worthless if the Front Range Toll Road isn't built (and probably worthless if the FRTR IS built). See Kiwi Map.
New on 8/25 - I made a corridor parcel map for Arapahoe County. Click the link at the top.
New on 8/25 - Mike Miller of Elbert County noticed that Front Range Toll Road LTD, LLLP, PTR (I'll call it FRTR LTD) filed an amendment today. This is a partnership apparently created to manage Front Range Toll Road Company, PTR which is the actual company created to build the road. They list an amendment to "Article 13" of their partnership which is unusual because they never filed the articles of the partnership in the first place. They give a description of the corridor which appears to be identical to the one given for the underlying company (except they finally correct the spelling of "Nun" but they still misspell "Keensburg".)
Then a new detail emerges. The amendment was submitted "By its General Partner, SPIRIT OF CHEYENNE, INC." It is signed by attorney William C. Waller, Jr. as secretary of Spirit of Cheyenne, Inc. It is notarized and has a barely legible map attached.
Spirit of Cheyenne, Inc. was incorporated by William C. Waller on Nov. 30, 2004. This is about a month before Wells attempted to get a bill passed changing the toll road laws (HB05-1030). That same day he incorporated Cheyenne Princess Corporation. The day before, on Nov. 29, 2004, he had incorporated Spirit of Cheyenne Land & Cattle Company, Inc. A month later, on Dec. 27, 2004, he formed TFC Partners, LLLP listing as a general partner Spirit of Cheyenne, Inc. On Nov. 9, 2004 he had incorporated Toll Road Management, Inc.
These are the entities we've found so far. Who knows what else is out there. 1. Front Range Toll Road Company, PTR 2. Toll Road Associates Limited Partnership 3. Flat Penny Incorporated 4. Front Range Toll Road LTD, LLLP, PTR 5. Front Range Toll Road Management, LLC 6. Toll Road Management, Inc. 7. Spirit of Cheyenne, Inc. 8. Cheyenne Land & Cattle Company, Inc. 9. Cheyenne Princess Corporation 10. TFC Partners, LLLP 11. Prairie Falcon Parkway Express, PTR
And no doubt coming soon: 12. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious LTD, LLLP, PTR *****************************
Republican candidate for governor Bob Beauprez was in Canon City and was asked a question about the Super Slab. Canon City is about 50 miles west of the corridor so I was surprised it came up out there. Here is an excerpt of the article from the Canon City Daily Record.
Beauprez also said he is against the use of eminent domain to condemn private land in Eastern Colorado to build a strip toll road dubbed “Super Slab.”
“This is a foreign idea to us,” Beauprez said. “I believe you don’t use the power of eminent domain to take away one private land owner’s property and give it to another to develop.
“I learned a long time ago that all land was not created equal. If it’s yours and it’s home, it’s pretty special,” Beauprez said. “If I were a private land owner I would be very concerned about many things if Ritter ended up your next governor.” *****************************
I want to encourage everyone to go see the gubernatorial candidates when they are in your area. Tell them your thoughts on the Super Slab and ask them how they would handle it as governor. They are both on our side but they need to meet hundreds of the people who would be displaced by it to drive the message home. Why is that so important? In July 2007 the terms of six of the eleven Transportation Commissioners will expire. They will be reappointed or replaced by the governor. In 2009 the other five commissioner's terms will expire. So each governor appoints all eleven during his term. The Transportation Commissioners are like the Supreme Court who decide whether a project is added to the state's transportation plan or not. If it's not approved by them it can't happen. The governor also appoints the Executive Director of CDOT and gives him his marching orders. If the governor tells him he doesn't like the Super Slab Ray Wells will have to find another hobby. *****************************
Having said that, Democratic candidate Bill Ritter will be at his Pueblo headquarters this Saturday, Aug. 26. He will be at 305 N. Santa Fe Ave. at 12:30 p.m. "Puebloans are welcome to meet the candidate, and refreshments will be served." Drop in and bend his ear.
New on 8/23 - Maybe Ray Wells has decided that his Front Range Toll Road Company has such a bad reputation that it would be best to call it something else. Last week he filed a trade name for the company apparently to give it a jazzier image. The name he chose is Prairie Falcon Parkway Express, PTR. Sounds fast doesn't it? It's ironic that he's using the sleek image of a prairie falcon for a project that would cover about 17,000 acres of the prairie falcon's hunting territory with asphalt and rails. The Colorado Department of Wildlife says that prairie falcons are declining in Colorado due to urban development of their habitat, and growing human disturbance. Imagine what a 210 mile long disturbance would do to them. Naming a toll road after wildlife, what a joke!
In the past two weeks Wells filed papers that did the following:
1. Renamed the company to Front Range Toll Road Company, PTR and amended the corridor from 12 miles wide to 3 miles. 2. Amended the verbal description of the corridor neglecting to include a map that was supposed to be attached. 3. Amended again with the map included. 4. Filed Prairie Falcon Parkway Express, PTR as a tradename for FRTRC, PTR 5. Renamed the mysterious Front Range Toll Road LTD, LLLP to Front Range Toll Road LTD, LLLP, PTR That's Front Range Toll Road Limited, Limited Liability Limited Partnership, Private Toll Road and God only knows what it's for. 6. Filed Front Range Toll Road LTD, LLLP, PTR as a tradename.I previously listed 5 entities that Wells has for this project. I was missing a sixth, Toll Road Management, Inc. The six are:
1. Front Range Toll Road Company, PTR tradename Prairie Falcon Parkway Express, PTR 2. Toll Road Associates Limited Partnership 3. Flat Penny Incorporated 4. Front Range Toll Road LTD, LLLP, PTR 5. Front Range Toll Road Management, LLC 6. Toll Road Management, Inc.There are notes on the first five HERE. **************************** Also in the last two weeks a few of us worked out that a mysterious new kink in the road in Elbert County neatly skirted around a ranch belonging to one of the richest people in Texas. A few days later Ray Wells called the Elbert County Assessor and said that he had given them the wrong map. He sent them a new map and the assessor made a new list of names which Gaye Thomasson picked up today. They are posted at HERE. This map matches the one he filed with the Secretary of State and doesn't have the kink. **************************** I'm getting more hits on the website than in all of the 18 months that it has been up. And more people are asking to get the emails than ever. Gaye Thomasson says they're experiencing the same thing at their site. Usually web traffic goes up for a day or two after a story is in the news but now it is gaining on its own from people just telling their neighbors. When all of those thousands of certified letters go out I expect it to increase even more. I've included some of the emails I've received HERE.
New on 8/22 - Elbert map and owner list have been updated. Click link at top of page.
New on 8/18 - Robert Thomasson got a call from the Elbert County Assessor on Thursday. Apparently Ray Wells sent them the wrong map! They will get the correct map and an updated owners list to Robert on Monday. I'll post it as soon as I get it. They say the list of affected people will only be slightly different. Could it be that they've reconsidered doing the Texas two-step? Read more about this at Toll Road Blogspot *********************************** I emailed the gubernatorial candidates several questions about the Super Slab. I asked whether they thought the road should be built, whether they would prevent or allow CDOT to enter a public-private-initiative (PPI) with the Front Range Toll Road Company and what they would do if CDOT entered into a PPI in the remaining months of Governor Owens' term. Here are their replies.
Bill Ritter (Democrat):
The private toll road that was proposed should not be built as planned. Any future private toll road should clearly address all state requirements, including the new requirements enacted in this year’s legislature. In addition, county land use regulations must be followed, including requirements for public hearings.
Eminent domain or condemnation should be used only as a last resort option. I am a strong supporter of private property rights. It is a fundamental policy dating back to the birth of our nation. There are, however, some limited instances when condemnation should be used – but only if it is clearly in the public interest. The point is that it should be used sparingly and with fairness and respect for property owners.
I would not support CDOT entering a PPI with FRTRC based on plans previously disclosed. There has not been enough community involvement, not enough details, not enough analysis conducted to date. I wouldn’t put the property owners and residents designated as being in or near the toll road envelope in jeopardy without the answers to many more questions. No honest candidate for Governor could stand here and tell you that there will never be a private toll road that can work, including along the Front Range. I will promise, however, that we will ensure that there is a thorough analysis, including extensive input, from affected citizens before proceeding.
I hope that Governor Owens will not take such an action [entering into a PPI] in his final months in office. If this were to occur, if elected I would thoroughly review the decision and determine what appropriate actions might be taken.
Bob Beauprez (Republican):
I have been a strong and vocal opponent of the abuse of eminent domain used for a private purpose, such as economic development, including when it comes to Super Slab. I believe all transportation projects must go through a public process with the input and buy-in of local communities. I think that the FRTRC has a lot of questions to answer and before anything was done in my administration, I would insist on a meeting to discuss in detail their plans. I don't think any large-scale construction project ought to be built over the objections of Colorado voters. If the affected communities and the proponents of the road can come to agreement, that's one thing. But a project like this needs to have significant community buy-in before anything moves forward.
*************************************** Although Bill Ritter does say that the Super Slab "should not be built as planned" they both seem to suggest that after more discussion including input from the public it might be acceptable. I have to say I was expecting more definitive statements against the road. There have been at least five Super Slab related bills in the legislature in the last 18 months with more public participation than they have ever seen at the Capitol. It has not been acceptable to the communities involved in any of its permutations. With or without a railroad, with or without utilities, with or without bordering conservation easements (remember those?) the people along the corridor agree that it would be devastating to life in the eastern plains. No citizens groups have risen up in favor of the road, not in Wellington, nor Keenesburg, nor Bennett, nor Kiowa, nor Calhan, nor Avondale, nor Denver. It's a bad idea, it won't solve traffic problems in the cities and there is only one person who is clamoring for it to be built. Let me know what you think of their comments and, more importantly, let them know at bill@ritterforgovernor.com and bob@beauprezforgovernor.com
New on 8/17 - The Front Range Toll Road Company has filed another amendment today, the third in a week. In version 2 they changed the verbiage describing the corridor and referred to an attached map. But there was no map. I emailed the Secretary of State about this but was told it wasn't a violation of state law and there was nothing they could do about it. A few hours later FRTR filed version 3 which includes a map. But it's a different map than the one filed with version 1 on 8/11. That one showed halftone dots as if it were a scan of a printed roadmap with the corridor drawn on. The version 3 map resembles the map we received on April 7th. It was generated by Felsburg Holt & Ullevig (FHU) of Denver at 8:49 this morning. It was filed with the Secretary of State at 11:46. The earlier FHU map had a low resolution aerial photo as the background. This one has a plain white background with only major highways shown. The Malone Ranch isn't outlined as it was on the earlier FHU map and the Texas Royalty detour isn't shown. How many people think he finally has it right this time? I didn't think so. An Acrobat file of the version 3 map.
New on 8/17 - There have been more maps and owner lists added or updated. Here is the complete list of what is at the site now.
Larimer County - No information. Several people have inquired and done Open Records Act requests but haven't been given anything. Weld County - Map and owner information. 1610 parcels. Adams County - NEW VERSION OF MAP AND LIST added today. 1614 parcels. Many names on the list that weren't on the earlier version. Arapahoe County - No information. Several people have inquired but not found anything. Elbert County - Map and newly added owner information. 411 parcels. Discrepencies in maps FRTR is using. El Paso County - Map and owner information. 1425 parcels. Pueblo County - Map and owner information. 656 parcels.
That's 5716 parcels of land effected without any count for Larimer or Arapahoe. ********************** On 8/16 FRTR filed an amendment to their corporate filing. This amendment replaces the amendment they did five days earlier. It replaces all references like "crossing US-34 twelve miles east of Greeley" with ones like "crossing US-34 ten to thirteen miles east of Greeley." That is, they specify a three mile wide range for all crossing points. It also relaces "three miles west of Bennett" with "just west of Bennett." They still misspell Nunn as Nun. They've had several months to prepare this one paragraph and then they decided it needed to be changed within a few days. ********************** I'm getting a lot of new signups for these mailings. If you haven't already done so you should email Patty Sward at sward@mho.com and ask to be added to their emails. They are the ones who found out about FRTR contacting the counties and many of the other news developments. ********************** I previously mentioned that the map Ray Wells filed on 8/11 was visibly different from the one the provided to Elbert County to be used to locate landowners. The one provided to the county makes a fairly pronounced S-curve near Kiowa. Dave Reed, webmaster of www.nosuperslab.org pointed out that the S-curve steers the corridor right around the southwest corner of a 3,000 acre ranch owned by Wilmatt, Limited Partnership. Wilmatt also owns 10,000 acres near Agate. I looked up Wilmatt and found that it is run by Julia Matthews Wilkinson of Austin, TX. A Google search on her name revealed that there is a branch of an art museum at the University of Texas named after her. Interesting. More research found that she is from a family that the Handbook of Texas Online describes as one of the wealthiest families in west Texas. Her grandmother, Ruth Leggett Jones, founded the Dodge Jones Foundation which ranks near the Michael Dell Foundation and the Perot Foundation in grant money given. Her mother is the current president of the foundation and she is a director. Her family is from Abilene and her mother and grandmother were named "Abilenians of the Millenium" for their philanthropic work.
Okay, so they're rich, but have they done anything wrong? Probably not, but it looks like the huge Texas based corporation Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) has steered this road around the property of Texas royalty. Since the passage of HB-1003 this road can only be built as a partnership with the state. Will CDOT and the Transportation Commission agree on a route that wipes out small landowners in order to spare an out-of-state heiress? Can that be proven to be necessary and in the best interest of the people? That is the standard established by HB-1003.
I have updated the COMPARISON PAGE to show the Wilmatt ranch and the detour around it.
Info on Ruth Leggett Jones: Abilenians of the Millenium Bio in Texas Handbook SEC Filing for the Dodge Jones Foundation
New on 8/15 - Let the incompetence begin! The map that Ray Wells has filed with the Secretary of State is different than the one that he provided to Elbert County in order to identify landowners there. It is missing the "squiggle" northeast of Kiowa that first appeared in the map developed by Kellogg, Brown & Root. I noticed this within 5 minutes so I wouldn't doubt if there are other screwups. If Wells and KBR can't do a better job of engineering than an amateur with no experience should they really be trusted to bulldoze 210 miles across Colorado? Look HERE to see the two versions side-by-side.
New on 8/15 - On August 11 The Front Range Toll Road Company filed an amendment to their corporate filing with the Secretary of State. The name of the company was changed to Front Range Toll Road Company, PTR which is a requirement of HB-1003 in order to make toll road corporations easier for the Secretary of State to identify. The Secretary is now required to maintain a list of all toll road companies.
The filing also amends the corridor description to a three mile width, another requirement of HB-1003. The route is described in general terms and a map is attached. It is the route that passes north of Nunn that was provided to five of the seven counties in June. It also extends several miles west of I-25 at Wellington which is in contradiction to the verbal description and has no justification as part of a toll road. There are railroad tracks to the west of I-25 and Wells may intend to use that area for a connection to his Flat Penny Railroad. This would be in contradiction to senators in the Senate Transportation Committee hearing on HB-1003 who made it clear that a railroad could not be lumped into a toll road project with property being taken by CDOT.
The papers were filed by attorney Russell Sindt of Lakewood and signed by Ray Wells. Although it is a low resolution map I wll blow it up to create a map of Larimer and Arapahoe counties as soon as I can. The new corporate filing is at HERE (Adobe Acrobat file) and at the Secretary of State's website.
New on 8/7 - Thanks to Robert Thomasson for sending the Elbert County map.
New on 8/7 - The older map created by Felsburg Holt & Ullevig in March 2006 is here. It is similar to the new one but is out of date.
New on 8/7 - Maps. I'm hearing that Arapahoe County (like Larimer) isn't aware of anyone requesting owner information for the toll road corridor. I should have an Elbert map soon.
I'm waiting for a reply from El Paso County but in the meantime I've copied the corridor outline from their earlier map onto a parcel map. I suspect that the new map will be about the same. I was also sent a list of landowners that I assume corresponds to the earlier corridor. They are HERE. ******************************************** Wendy Norris is a columnist at Colorado Confidential and a blogger at Unbossed.com. She is doing an article about the Super Slab opposition. She would would like to hear from corridor residents and others that will be harmed by the road. Send her an email telling about your home or farm and thoughts on the toll road at: wendy.n@comcast.net ******************************************** News. The Pueblo Chieftain had an article Saturday about Halliburton's involvement with FRTR.
The July issue of 5280 Magazine has an excellent article on eminent domain abuse in Colorado and particularly about phoney blight designations.
There is an article on eminent domain abuse in the newest Parade Magazine. That's the section inserted in the Sunday newspaper.
The Denver Post had an article about John Malone's land conservation efforts. Mr. Malone owns 500,000 acres of land in Colorado including 69,000 in Elbert County. Although Ray Wells is proposing a route that weaves its way through the separate parts of the Malone Ranch it would ruin the tranquility and make ranching more difficult to have a highway, railroad and pipelines running right down the middle. I hope we can count on John Malone to keep up his opposition and make sure this road doesn't run over his neighbors' land.
The article: Cable magnate loves open space. John Malone and his wife, Leslie, own huge tracts they won't develop.
******************************************* Off topic. I mentioned a couple of articles about blight fraud. On Aug. 15 the Pueblo City Council will have a hearing on designating an area at the north end of Pueblo as blighted. It is vacant land that is the same as it was 200 years ago when Zebulon Pike came to the area. The owner has already built a brand new Kohls, Bed Bath & Beyond, Dress Barn, Old Navy, Chilis and 5 or 6 other businesses on adjacent land. Those are the only stores of those names in Pueblo so it is our newest and best shopping area. Now the Council wants to declare the remaining vacant area to be blighted. The legal requirements for a blight designation are so broad that any area can be found to be blighted. Here they will probably cite the lack of roads and maybe the cactus and weeds. The developer has offered to fund the blight study, the result isn't in doubt. They don't want to take the land by eminent domain, they want to use tax increment financing (TIF) to build overpasses over I-25 that the developer wants. TIF is a scheme that Urban Renewal Authorities can use to rehabilitate a blighted area by spending any increase in property taxes on improvements within the blighted area.
Anyone building a house or business would like to know that when their property tax bill skyrockets that at least the money will be spent right outside their door. Roads will be improved and they will get needed traffic signals and street lights. But it only works that way for slums that are being renewed (rarely) or for commercial developments built by millionaires (common). Several hundred acres on both sides of I-25 were purchased by Al Unser, Jr.and Shelley Unser of Albuquerque, NM on Nov. 10, 1991. This is "Little Al" Unser the Indy racecar driver and his wife (since divorced). On the same day the land was transferred to Wayne Lovelady also of Albuquerque. Three weeks later the land was transferred to W L Enterprises, LTD which now owns 82 properties in Pueblo. Wayne Lovelady is the named partner of W L Enterprises . I don't know whether Al Unser, Jr. is a partner nor why he did the one day land transaction with Lovelady. Internet sources show that Unser and Lovelady have had other business dealings together.
These are the sorts of people who qualify for this welfare-like tax scheme intended to rehabilitate slums. If the state wants to allow welfare for shopping malls they should put it in the law rather than letting cities perpetrate the fraud that perfectly good property is blighted. In Arvada they declared a lake with bald eagles nesting in trees to be blighted because they wanted to build a Walmart. In Sheridan, CO they have committed blight fraud to build a Target store. The Pueblo City Council also has their eye on the area between the Riverwalk and Runyon Lakes. They want to help millionaires who are building lofts for yuppies. If they include Fox Garden and ABC Plumbing we could lose two of Pueblo's most useful businesses to eminent domain. There are many more examples. Read the Parade and 5280 articles mentioned above.
******************************************* Some emails.
Hi Rob, We were noticing that the stupid slab is proposed to go through some of the natural wetlands and migratory areas in northern Weld county, which are not only important to the animals but also are prime hunting areas.
***
Resident of east of Kersey, thanks for the info. Please add me to your list.
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Please add me to your list. I own farm land in the path of destruction. Thanks.
***
For a while there I thought Stupidslab was on the way out now with Halliburton and probably the VP involved I am not so sure!
***
Thanks Rob for the update. I forwarded this on to the St. Mary's Holy Dormition Church (North of Calhan) where my wife's family worships and her grandparents are buried. You know we are opposed to this attempted land grab. Keep me posted. I cannot think of a dumber way to meet our transportation needs that toll roads.
James Bowen
Boyero, Co
Candidate for Colorado Senate District 1
www.jamesbowen.com
***
Hello - please add me to your list as I live right in the path and let me know what I can do.
***
Thanks for the update Rob! Your hard work in this area is VERY much appreciated!!
***
We are not wanting to have this
New on 8/4 - Thanks to Cindy Bulinski for getting the parcel map for Adams County. I now have parcel maps on the site for Adams, Pueblo and Weld and a list of the landowners for Pueblo County. There are about 650 parcels of land belonging to 274 owners in the Pueblo part of the corridor. I've heard from two people who contacted Larimer County. They were told that they weren't aware of any request for landowner information. They say that KBR may have bought the information through their website without contacting anyone.
The maps and owner list so far are HERE.
There's an article in today's Rocky Mountain News: Super Slab still alive. Developer hires firm to navigate red tape.
Tom Wambolt of Save Our Lake in Arvada. Will be hosting the Colorado Eminent Domain Activist Conference on Sat., Aug. 19 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. At the Embassy Suites Hotel Denver-Aurora, 4444 N. Havana (I-70 & Havana). Admittance is by Reservation Only. For information call Tom at 303-421-5668 or email: twambolt@viawestd.net. At last years conference many of our toll road opposition group met up with their counterparts in the Northwest Parkway opposition and with other eminent domain opponents. The exchange of information has been a benefit to all parties.
Here are some of my recent emails :
Rob, Thanks for the update. As long as I am in the Senate I can guarantee you that the PEOPLES VOICE WILL BE HEARD! We will continue to stand on guard. Tom J. Wiens State Senator Republican Caucus Chairman *************************************** Rob, thank you for forwarding this. I will go on record as saying this is one state representative who is NOT going to approve this cockeyed scheme for a Super Slab with railroad. I'm glad you are contacting the gubernatorial candidates about this. Gwyn Green State Representative *************************************** Rob, Thank you for the update. The old boy is determined. But I think we have put up some significant roadblocks. We may need more, but at least we will have slowed him down. *************************************** Hi Rob, Thanks for passing on this information. Do you need help contacting Larimer and Weld Counties? Please keep me in the loop on this. *************************************** Rob. Keep up the good work. *************************************** Thanks for all the work you do in keeping us all informed. I haven't checked your website for quite sometime, thinking this issue was on it's way out. A friend of ours sent us your latest communication and it's apparent that the fight is back on. Even with the redrawn corridor, we stand to lose the land that my parents have farmed for over 40 years and the home where we have raised our children and made our living for the last 10. Thanks again and keep up the good work! *************************************** You don't know me...But, Thank you so much for your hard work and keeping me, and others like me, the ignoramous informed. *************************************** Rob, Click on the below hyperlinks. Halliburton is truly despicable. HalliburtonWatch.Org Mother Jones CorpWatch ************************************** Rob -- thanks for the update! You're right, I thought this was DEAD. And now that I'm 2-weeks away from finishing our new house in Elbert, I'm even more concerned. I can't believe this is still being pursued. ************************************** Take care and thank you for keeping everyone up to date on the railroad and tollroad. ************************************** We will see if the letters ask any landowner for permission to acess their land for purposes of completing "studies". ************************************** Rob, As I live in the land of toll roads it is in Colorado's best interest to halt this action as one leads to more and they never go away. Out here many of the toll road funds have been linked to organized crime. ************************************** Hello. Thank you so much for keeping us updated and fighting against the stupid slab – we wanted to buy out east and are now reconsidering. However we have many friends and family that would be affected by this asinine land grab. Let us know how we can help to fight against it. ************************************** Thank you for another update. Thanks for all your hard work. I will go to as many meetings in Arapahoe or Adams county that I can. ************************************** Rob, Thanks for keeping us informed. I appreciate it. Our home is on the edge of that three mile corridor near Falcon Highway. I have not heard anything other than what you have provided. Thanks again. ************************************* And quite a few like this: Please add me to your list.
New on 8/2 - Added the parcel map for the Adams County part of the corridor HERE. (Adams, Weld and Pueblo are now posted)
New on 8/1 - The list of all Pueblo County landowners in the three mile wide corridor.
New on 8/1 - We learned about four days ago that an employee of Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) was contacting the counties along the Super Slab corridor and asking for information on the landowners in a three mile wide corridor. HB-1003 which was passed this year requires that the Super Slab narrow their corridor to three miles (from twelve) and notify the owners. One possibility was that Ray Wells was just bringing his corporate filing into compliance with the new laws but had no present intention to build the Super Slab. It turns out that was just wishful thinking. Robert Thomasson of the High Plains Coalition for Responsible Transportation Policy spoke to Ray Wells on Monday and was told that his plan is to move forward with the project now. And he says that his plans include a railroad along with the toll road. I have included Robert's blog message below.
I have submitted several questions concerning the Super Slab to the two gubernatorial candidates. They are both known to be opposed to it but I'm asking them to explain their positions in more detail. As the one who appoints the Executive Director of CDOT and sets the transportation policy for the state, the governor's support would seem to be necessary for any company wanting to form a public-private-initiative (PPI) with CDOT. Without a PPI a company can't use eminent domain to obtain the land they need. Both campaign managers have responded and will send statements from their candidates in the next few days.
Sharon Croghan has obtained a corridor map for Weld County that shows the outlines of all parcels of land in the corridor. This map is a bit different than the one we got a few months ago. For one thing it now passes north of Nunn rather than south. I've added it to the page with the Pueblo map HERE
****************************************************
Robert Thomasson's update from the Toll Road Warrior's Blog.
Fellow Warriors,
I spoke with Ray Wells this afternoon. He returned a call that I had placed to him on the day that I learned that he had engaged Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to move forward with the Front Range Toll Road. With the statutory protections we have in place, I felt that speaking directly to the source was in our best interest. I learned a few things.
First, I asked Mr. Wells if he was going ahead with the project. He spoke with a confidence that would suggest that there are no obstacles in the way of the project. Yes, he is moving ahead. Wells says he is determined to comply with all of the requirements that are in the new laws. He says he never intended to give any other impression than that his desire was to work with communities along the route. He tried to assure me that the road will help us, not hurt us.
I then asked Mr. Wells if he still intended to try and build a companion railroad. He told me that the road cannot be built without the railroad. He told me that he was confident that the State would approve his plan with the rails. He is using the buzz phrase, “multi-modal- transportation corridors.” This is language that is being tossed around in many states. It is designed, in my opinion, to try to dismiss the current transportation building practices as being outdated. It appears that the approach Wells will take is to try and convince transportation planners that roads are much more than concrete pathways. I believe he will argue that today's roads should be thought of as corridors that will carry goods, people, fuel, electricity and information. Roads are not roads anymore. We have long expected this.
I talked to him about CDOT being only able to use its condemnation powers from shoulder to shoulder. I asked him if he was basing the whole project on CDOT and planners accepting the rails. He said he could build the railroad anyway because of his railroad rights with Flat Penny. He stated that he has condemnation powers as a railroad company. When I pressed him a bit further on his ability to prove need for a railway, he changed the subject. He said it was unlikely he would have to use that power because the CDOT/PPI would adopt his rail plan.
I asked Wells about going around John Malone and leaving the FRTR corridor. He said he did not avoid Malone. He just wanted to avoid a 380 foot cut in the wall of the Bijou basin and that the Malone thing was just a coincidence. He also told me that he had purchased JICRO and JICRA. He made a deal with William Tolbert. I of course have seen no evidence of this on the Secretary of State’s web site. I did not ask if he has purchased the KIWI corridors.
He has not re-filed his articles of incorporation and was not intending to do it until sometime later before September 6th. He said he was preparing letters of notification through KBR and they would not be sent until his re-filing. The route is nearly the same as the last one that the TRW posted (stupidslab.com) during the legislative session that was narrowed to three miles. There are minor changes in Pueblo and further north along the corridor.
All counties have been contacted for ownership of parcels and tax identification information. Each county has been given route maps. Some counties have finished providing him with the requested information. He has been in contact with various county commissioners, but he did not elaborate specifically on which ones. He was able to talk about the financial woes of Elbert County and needs that we may have. He seemed concerned about the lack of money that Elbert County had for its schools. He was certain that the road might be a vital part of financial solutions in fiscally distressed counties. He assured me he had nothing inappropriate in mind.
I told him we intended to be vigilant and to rest assured we were watching his every move to make sure he followed all of the requirements. I told him we would be involved at every level allowable and that we intended to have our concerns addressed. He said he was okay with all of that.
We are about to test just how strong the three pieces of legislation we helped to put in place really are. We are up against Ray and one of the wealthiest corporations on the planet. Suffice it to say, KBR and its parent company Halliburton have a reputation. Some believe them to be corrupt. Some believe they are the best in the world. I just think we have to be on our toes.
In the words of Dorothy, “We’re not in Kansas any more, Toto!”
Robert Thomasson
New on 7/29 - I got word on Thursday night that someone from Halliburton had contacted the Elbert County Courthouse requesting a list of property owners names addresses for landowners in the Super Slab corridor in Elbert County. On Friday I checked with the Pueblo County Courthouse and found out that they had done the same thing there. Robert Thomasson tracked the man down and spoke to him. He works in Houston. TX for Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) a subsidiary of Halliburton. These are the giant companies that have made billions in Iraq including charging the Army hundreds of dollars per load to do laundry and employees demanding kickbacks of millions of dollars on contracts.
Here's the deal. On June 6 Governor Owens signed HB-1003 which required the Front Range Toll Road Company to narrow their 12 mile corridor down to three miles. It also requires them to notify all of the landowners within that corridor of their plans. So Ray Wells has hired KBR to do the notification. They also do huge construction projects like this so they may be the intended construction company if the road is ever built.
There are about 650 parcels effected in Pueblo County. A map showing the corridor and all of the land parcels crossed is HERE. The corridor at the southern junction with I-25 is different from the map they circulated a few months ago. It connects at Stem Beach rather that Verde Valley. So there may be other differences along the 210 mile route. No doubt they have contacted all of the counties along the corridor. If any of you in other counties can get to the courthouse and get the map for your county send it to me & I'll post it.
There will be thousands of people getting letters in the next couple of months and saying "Huh? I thought that was dead!" Maybe this will finally get their attention. Remember that before SB-78 and HB-1003 were passed this year the first notice we would have received would be a demand to sell or be condemned. They can't do that anymore. Now they will need to get the approval of the Transportation Commission, CDOT and others. Basically, if the people have any control over their governor, representatives and state employees then the people will decide whether to build this toll road. Notice that I said IF we have any control. If we don't pay attention and get involved then parties like Ray Wells and Halliburton will be calling the shots.
My website logs showed me that Halliburton had visited several times so I suspected they were involved. Another visitor has been Macquarie. Macquarie is another HUGE company and has bought or financed many toll road projects. If you read the Denver Post series on toll roads recently you'll remember that Macquarie was involved in almost all of those projects. So the pressure will be intense but our new laws say that a toll road must be proven to be necessary and in the best interest of the state before it can be built. This Wyoming to New Mexico road is neither.
HB-1003 also requires that the Secretary of State maintain a list of toll roads and make it available to the public. Several weeks ago I emailed the Secretary of State asking how that will be done and whether there will be a page at the website listing toll roads. I have not received an answer.
See today's entry at the Toll Road Warrior's Blog for more details. If you can get to their picnic on Aug. 13 do so. There will no doubt be more information known by then.
New on 6/6 - Governor Signs HB-1003 - Today Governor Owens signed HB-1003. A press release from the governor's office says "HB 1003, Sponsored by State Representative Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, establishes a planning process and requires transparency for the building of private toll roads. This legislation ensures that private toll road construction will be vetted through the same public process as a normal public roadway must; it will ensure that the private toll road is a viable transportation option for the future and not just a pet development project." Fantastic! The Super Slab is a pet development project if ever there was one.
Please send an email to Rep. Pommer thanking him for his hard work over the last 15 months to win this victory. We now have a good set of standards to demand that any toll road company follow. His address: jack.pommer.house@state.co.us
Last week the Denver Post struck a major blow for toll road opponents by exposing the flawed process used to obtain financing for toll roads. In a nutshell, the series of articles showed that the three companies that do financial analyses almost always give a positive recommendation, that they are almost always wrong, and that they stand to make additional millions if the road is built. These need to be independent, objective analyses but that hardly seems possible when they know what result the client expects and there are bonuses to be earned for the right answer. In one example the estimated revenues were off by 94%. That one may be especially relevant for us because it (like the Super Slab) was expected to carry a lot of truck traffic. But rather than 1500 trucks per day the road gets 75 trucks per day.
Be sure to read these articles, these will be important issues in any future toll road projects: Roads to Riches Northwest Parkway No 2-Way Street
The same issues exist in environmental impact studies. The engineering companies that design the highways also do impact studies. It's like one-stop shopping for a toll road. The company that produced the map for the Front Range Toll Road Company says "Environmental regulations can have a financial and schedule impact on transportation projects big and small. New environmental regulations can be complex, burdensome, expensive, and difficult to anticipate. Felsburg Holt & Ullevig realizes the need for the transportation industry to be proactive in regulatory compliance and overall environmental management. Our understanding of environmental laws, regulatory compliance, watershed science, and engineering can help reduce our clients' environmental risks and liabilities during transportation projects." No construction company has ever hired Greenpeace to do their EIS.
So now that these kind of studies are required for private toll roads we need to make sure that they are done honestly. Read the 6/6 entry on Toll Road Warriors Blog for more on this.
FRTR Company has 90 days to bring their corporate filing into compliance with HB-1003. That will include declaring a three mile wide corridor and notifying county clerks and property owners. Time will tell whether he intends to move forward with his "if I build it they will come" theory for Colorado's transportation future. Let's hope he comes to his senses.
New on 5/25 - On Wednesday HB-1003 got the required signatures in the General Assembly and was sent to the governor. He has 30 days to act on it but it would be nice if he were to sign it before the Memorial Day weekend. There are dozens of cemeteries within the corridors claimed by toll roads in Colorado. HB-1003 would place cemeteries off limits to toll roads so having the bill enacted before this weekend's cemetery visits would be a nice touch.
Roselawn Cemetery is the burial place of 50,000 Puebloans including two of Colorado's governors, a US senator and a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. Roselawn is within the Front Range Toll Road's 12 mile wide corridor. A modified version of the Super Slab corridor disclosed this year contains St. Mary's Holy Dormition O