Wellington planners present draft Transportation and Mobility Plan after broad public feedback

Britney Lenor, a planner with the Wellington planning department, presented the town's draft Transportation and Mobility Plan at the May 13 meeting, outlining the plan's scope, public-engagement results and next steps. "We are here to provide an update to you on the town's first transportation and mobility plan," Lenor said, describing the three connected efforts: the mobility plan itself, an impact-fee nexus study, and revisions to street design standards.

Lenor said phase one engagement (October'January) produced substantial, location-specific input through an interactive project map and in-person events. "We did see a lot of engagement in that map'224 map pins from 112 contributors and then you did have an opportunity to upvote and downvote comments'about 400 of those upvote and down votes," she said. The highest priorities identified were safer streets for all, easier walking and biking connections, and better routes to schools, parks and downtown.

The presentation described the plan's technical work, including existing and forecasted average daily traffic for 2050 on arterial and collector roads using the North Front Range MPO modeled network; a pedestrian gap analysis driven by job and population density and access to services; and a bicycle-level-of-traffic-stress analysis that flags corridors with high stress due to speed, width and separation.

Board members asked about the plan's geographic scope and whether it would consider regional connections. Lenor said the plan focuses on town boundaries and the growth-management area while keeping potential future regional links in mind. On questions about e-bikes, she said trail- and e-bike-specific policies will be coordinated with the trail master plan and that ordinance or outreach work may be needed beyond master-plan language.

Lenor read a draft vision and six guiding goals that prioritize safety, connectivity, stewardship and responsible growth. She said the plan is a 20-year document and that implementation will include prioritized actions and an implementation table (year, 5'10 years, 10'20 years). Phase two of community engagement, intended to confirm priorities and help rank projects, is scheduled for late May and early June; staff circulated QR-code flyers and said the project website will host the current- and future-conditions report when posted.

The presentation repeatedly tied transportation recommendations to the parks and trails work already underway, and trustees urged staff to use events such as the Fourth of July and local markets to expand outreach for phase two. The next technical deliverables cited by staff were the current-and-future-conditions report and the pro forma elements needed to move particular projects from vision to budget-ready proposals.

What happens next: staff will publish the conditions report and run phase two engagement, then refine the CIP and implementation schedule before a pre-adoption review with this advisory group and final consideration by the Board of Trustees.