Pitkin County commissioners weigh reopening environmental review of 'Entrance to Aspen' plan

Pitkin County Board of County Commissioners on April 8 heard a staff presentation on the long-running Entrance to Aspen environmental process and signaled support — with conditions and dissent — for beginning a formal reevaluation of the 1998 Record of Decision (ROD) rather than immediately asking federal and state agencies to reopen the full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

The presentation by county staff framed three options for the board: do nothing (take no position), support a reevaluation of the existing ROD and refinements to the preferred alternative, or formally ask the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to reopen the EIS and start a full new environmental process. County staff emphasized that CDOT and FHWA hold the ultimate authority to reopen the ROD.

The draft ROD and preferred alternative discussed at the meeting are the outcome of an EIS process completed in the late 1990s and reevaluated in 2007. County engineer Andrew Knapp and Public Works Director Brian Pettit reviewed project history and what remains unbuilt: a proposed alignment across the Maroon/Meadow open space that would include a cut-and-cover tunnel, a new four-lane bridge over Castle Creek and a signalized connection at Seventh Street, and the elimination of a link from Cemetery Lane to the roundabout. The preferred approach is phased: one general-purpose lane and…