Abandoned Restaurant in North Boulder

North Boulder is way outside the geographic limits of this blog, but it seems to fit within the general mood of showcasing abandoned properties.  At 2880 Diagonal Highway in Boulder sits an abandoned restaurant that was a Furr's Restaurant, and may have been a Lazy Dog Bar in the '90s.  It has been abandoned since at least 2004, I think.  There are weeds growing through the cracks in the parking lot.  My impression is that this building is hopeless and will be torn down.  The nearby troubled Diagonal Plaza has lots of empty parking spaces and doesn't need anymore.

This is in the "poor" (relatively speaking) section of north Boulder.  It is so far down on the economic scale that they actually allowed a Walmart in.  This building is within about 200 feet of the front entrance to the neighborhood Walmart.

There is something really wrong if a building sits empty for 13 years.  And Boulder certainly isn't immune to problems.

Fan Fare Redevelopment

The proposal as it stands now calls for 207 mid-rise multifamily rental units, 86 for-sale townhomes, 19,700 square feet of retail and commercial space and a 14,000 square foot mixed-use building, she said.
--http://www.aurorasentinel.com/news/fan-fare-site-line-redevelopment/

Fitzsimons Light Rail Station Fiasco

The new RTD R light-rail line has a station called the Fitzsimons Station, but it is in a horrible location on the far north side of the Anschutz/Fitzsimons campus. To go from there to the hospitals requires crossing a major 4-lane parkway and then walking on a dirt path for a few blocks along the edge of a golf course, then about 4 more blocks to the medical school, then even further to the hospitals.  Since this is way too far for anyone who is visiting a hospital to walk, there is a shuttle bus that runs about every 8 minutes, but that is still pretty crazy and expensive.  The north side of the station is all open space, with a trail to a residential development about 4 blocks north.

One of the plans was for the light-rail to go through the middle of the campus on Montview Blvd, but that was vetoed on concerns that it would split the campus in two.

So now it is in the middle of nowhere and hardly anyone uses it.  But every train that comes by has to stop.  It isn't that far from the golf course, but I doubt any golfers would bring their clubs on the train.

Ok I get it, that the urban planners like open space, and they like right rail, but why do you put the light rail in the middle of the open space?  You need to have density to justify the use of light rail, but open space is the exact opposite.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.  But why do they care?  The whole thing is paid for with sales tax, of which RTD has nearly an endless supply (about $600 million per year).

Flyover Animation of I-70

The Denver Connection and the Pena Blvd buffer

The area just north of I-70 on either side of Pena Blvd, is called the "Denver Connection".  This neighborhood was previously known at the Denver Gateway Area.  It is near a light-rail stop.

Once considered “out on the prairie”, Denver Connection is now surrounded by development on four sides making it a true infill location in the metro area’s core city of Denver. Denver Connection is one of the last remaining large tracts of residentially zoned land in the City and County of Denver.  
http://www.denverconnection.com

It might be interesting to compare this to the original "Airport Gateway Development Area".   The area is still mostly undeveloped, 27 years after this conceptual plan was produced in 1990.  The biggest obvious difference is the width of the buffer around Pena Blvd.   The conceptual plan has a buffer only about 100 feet on either side of the highway, maybe 400 feet wide total, whereas the actually developed buffer Pena Blvd is about 1/2 mile from one side to the other (1,000 feet on either side).

Why is it so wide?  The 1,000 feet is for a "scenic" buffer.  Apparently it is to protect wildlife, including possibly burrowing owls, raptors, and prairie dogs.

But the result is to make this very unfriendly for human urban development.  The area between the Rocky Mountain Arsenal and the currently alignment of Pena Boulevard used to have a trailer park. (This is in a park called "First Creek Park Open Space").  The only reason for this to be removed was apparently because it was "undesirable", since the land will not be redeveloped.  The effect of the wildlife buffer is to contribute to urban sprawl, and it makes the area seem post-apocalyptic.  It is eerie to have an area that used to have human inhabitants and is now empty of them, but with signs of previous human life.

My point is that the whole area seems somewhat sterile and unfriendly, and it may never thrive as an urban environment.  It could have been planned much better.

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Update:  I have re-read the Airport Gateway Development Area plan.  Almost none of it has been built, except for Green Valley Ranch, and a small section of motels on Tower between 67th and 71st.

Do you drink recycled wastewater?

People in Colorado think their drinking water comes from pure mountain snowmelt.  But for people who live in Aurora, as much as 20% of the water supply comes from recycled wastewater.  I just found out about this today, but it isn't really news.

There is a project called "Prairie Waters" which was completed in 2010 at a cost of $653 million.  Prairie Waters sounds benign, but this is really what happens. Aurora is a member of the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District, which covers 710 sq. miles and nearly all of the Denver area.  When you flush your toilet, it goes into the sewage system and gets treated at the "reclamation plant" at 64th & York, and then it is dumped into the South Platte River.  The South Platte River actually flows north at this point.

In Brighton, 12 miles downstream, the river water is just pumped from the ground.  To make this less gross, the pumping stations are 300 feet from the river.  It is then piped 34 miles to a treatment facility north of the Aurora Reservoir.  Since this is higher in elevation than Brighton, it is actually pumped uphill with 3 pumping stations along the way.  The treated water is then put into the Aurora Reservoir where it is mixed with the pure Rocky Mountain snowmelt.  It is presumably (I can't find a link) then treated again when it is taken out of the reservoir and put in the city's water system.

By setting up a system of filtration pumps 12 miles downstream from where it releases its wastewater, Aurora will be able to reclaim 3.3 billion extra gallons, keeping that added volume flowing in an infinite loop.

One problem is taste (hmm, really?).  All of this water meets federal quality standards, but the challenge for Aurora was taste. “Our current water comes off the mountains—it’s effectively snowmelt,” Binney says. To ensure that its residents never detect a difference, the city is building a state-of-the-art filtration plant to augment the natural purification process that begins in the river. “We are monitoring this thing,” he touts, “as much as you would a brewery or a good whiskey distillery.” (http://www.metropolismag.com/uncategorized/h20-s-m-blbprairie-waters-project/).

The water is zapped with massive amounts of ultraviolet light to kill off any microbes.
The water is sent through sand and charcoal filters and piped 34 miles to the Binney treatment facility. There, it is treated with chemicals. Some 6,912 ultraviolet bulbs zap the water to clean it further.  CH2M Hill was the project manager for Prairie Waters. CH2M Hill chairman Lee McIntire said during the ceremony that the project has more ultraviolet power than any water-treatment facility in the world.
http://www.denverpost.com/2010/10/08/auroras-state-of-the-art-653-million-water-treatment-facility-opens/

And now you know ... the rest of the story.  I wonder, how many Aurora real estate agents tell buyers about this?

See also:  https://coyotegulch.blog/category/colorado-water/aurora/prairie-waters/

The question is, do minute amounts of drugs such as caffeine, ibuprofen and other assorted "antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones" still live in the water in so many parts per quadrillion?

The Name Aurora Highlands

Aurora Highlands is a horrible name for the new development going up south of DIA. The first rule of naming something is that you Google it and see if it is unique.

Aurora Highlands is the name of a historic district in Arlington County, Virginia.  Oh, you say, that's ok, it just needs to be unique within the state.  But Aurora Highlands isn't even unique within the city of Aurora.  Aurora Highlands is the name of a neighborhood bounded by Mississippi Ave on the north, Buckley Road on the west, Iliff Ave on the south, and Tower Road on the east.

There is also a Highland Gate Aurora development in Ontario. And don't forget about Highlands Ranch, another mega-development with 100,000 people in Douglas County.  And the Highland neighborhood of Denver.

And it isn't the name on any of the planning maps.  So what should it be called?  Even the location isn't clear.  Apparently, it is bounded by 56th Ave on the north, 26th Ave on the south, Picadilly on the west, and Powhaton on the east.

It looks like it encompasses 4 of the earlier developments, called Green Valley Ranch East, Windler Homestead, Northeast Plains Medium Density Residential, and Sagebrush Farms.  And none of these are catchy (seriously, Green Valley Ranch East?).  So there isn't an obvious alternative.

Unfortunately the developer is named Aurora Highlands LLC and seems fixed on the name.  And the other development also goes by the name of "Aurora Highlands Vista" (actually "The Vista at Aurora Highlands"), so maybe there isn't a conflict.  Still, someone should have thought more about this.  And since no ground has been broken, it isn't too late to change it.  Any ideas?

Update:  Sorry the actual name is "The Aurora Highlands".  Don't forget the "The", like The Hague, Netherlands; The Plains, Virginia; and The Dalles, Oregon.  Does that fix the confusion?