GreenLatinos Urges Colorado to Consider Healthy Communities No-Widening Alternative for I-270

Yesterday, GreenLatinos sent the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) a Healthy Communities No-Widening Alternative to the proposed I-270 widening. The alternative draws from a report by an Architects Foundation “Design Assistance Team,” which met with community members in August to learn about their goals and concerns. GreenLatinos’ proposal would manage congestion on I-270 with differential tolling, which would facilitate public transit and keep polluting trucks off neighborhood streets while ensuring local residents could use the corridor at no cost. Earthjustice and GreenLatinos have urged the state of Colorado to delay a planned comment period to allow adequate time to study and consider the no-widening alternative.

“For decades Commerce City residents have been raising their voices for clean air and environmental justice,” said Ean Thomas Tafoya, vice president of state programs for GreenLatinos. “They have made clear they no longer wish to have their health sacrificed for industry and economic gain. This report is the result of seeking solutions that are responsive to community desires by designing projects that put public health and air quality first in our decision making.”

“Having worked on this I-270 expansion project since January of 2022, we at GreenLatinos have been pushing and prodding CDOT to do the right thing for years,” said Juan Roberto Madrid, 33-year public health professional and GreenLatinos’ Sustainable Communities Program Advocate. “We continue to implore CDOT to prioritize public health and air quality just as they have prioritized ‘travel time’ under the purpose and need statement.”

The state of Colorado is planning to open a 60-day comment period on its preferred alternative on November 17. The comment period overlaps with end-of-year holidays while the public is extremely busy with family and other commitments. In a letter sent to CDOT in October, Earthjustice and GreenLatinos urged the agency to delay the comment period to allow for adequate community outreach and engagement. GreenLatinos reiterated the call for a delay in its letter transmitting the no-widening proposal yesterday. Thus far, the state has refused to delay the comment period and is pressing forward with its widening proposal before evaluating the no-widening alternative.

“The Department of Transportation knows better than to schedule a comment period for an issue of major concern while community members are busy with the holidays,” said Alexandra Schluntz, senior attorney with Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain Office. “GreenLatinos was told earlier this year that the state would incorporate this no-widening alternative into its environmental analysis and was asked to provide it no later than December 2025. Apparently, that just meant GreenLatinos is free to submit public comments — a right they’ve had all along. The I-270 comment period should be postponed so that CDOT and the public can meaningfully consider and respond to the no-widening, community-focused vision.”

CDOT’s plan would cost far more than the Healthy Communities No-Widening Alternative and would not solve congestion. Decades of studies and experience show that, after years of disruptive construction, adding lanes to urban highways results in more traffic and pollution as additional cars take advantage of the new lanes. Under GreenLatinos’ alternative proposal, the tolls collected on the corridor would help fund improved public transit as well as safety improvements for nearby neighborhoods, including sidewalks, safe intersections, and bicycle lanes. Importantly, local residents would be exempt from the tolls.

The Healthy Communities No-Widening Alternative also calls for CDOT to ensure that the I-270 project benefits local residents by planting green buffers between neighborhoods and nearby industrial uses, providing air and water quality monitoring and filters, and building land bridges for pedestrian and wildlife connectivity between neighborhoods north of I-270 and Sand Creek to the south.