The federal Department of Transportation has announced that it is offering more than $5 million in grants for transit projects specific to Native American and Alaska Native communities.
The funding is coming through the department’s Tribal Transport Program, an effort that last year awarded grants for some 36 individual projects in 36 states, with three projects in Arizona, one in Colorado, and one in New Mexico receiving backing. In a statement, K. Jane Williams, the deputy administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, said the purpose of the grant program, otherwise known as Tribal Transit funds, is to “improve the quality of life in some of our most remote rural communities by providing safe and efficient transit service.” Last year, the program awarded nearly $50,000 for the construction of a bus and storage facility for the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona; $250,000 for the upgrading of a main transit facility for the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota; and $159,000 for the upgrading of a maintenance and storage shed at the Kalispell Reservation in Washington. Applications for this year’s Public Transportation on Indian Reservations Tribal Transit grants have to be submitted no later than September 10. By Garry Boulard
0 Comments
The idea was simple: a Colorado homeless advocacy group wanted to transform a vacant 59-acre site into a complex with up to 600 units for people who are homeless. As proposed by the Denver-based Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, the project would go up in Lakewood, 7 miles to the southwest of Denver, and would see the $120 million construction of five U-shaped buildings, all four stories in height. Perhaps the easiest part of the project, or so it was thought, was acquiring the land needed for its construction: a 59-acre site inside the large Federal Center, a more than 600-acre section of Lakewood called home by more than two dozen federal agencies and managed by the General Services Administration. The 59 acres, said the CCH, could be acquired through the 1987 McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, requiring that unused federal property must first be considered for homeless housing before being sold on the open market. Last year, the CCH officially proposed a two-phase project for the site, with the first phase seeing the putting up of around 250 temporary structures, and the second phase calling for the actual construction of the facility. Because of the proposed size of the CCH project, which could eventually provide housing for up to 1,000 people, area residents, expressing concerns about possible violence and drug issues, launched a campaign to stop it, some saying the idea resembled the worst of 1960s public housing. But the project’s biggest challenge has come with a decision by U.S. District Court of Colorado Judge William Martinez allowing for the land, over the CCH’s objection, to be put up for auction by the federal government. That auction is currently ongoing. It has been suggested that the successful bidder could turn the site into a mixed retail and residential project. CCH, meanwhile, may still continue its efforts to build in the Federal Center by appealing Martinez’s ruling. In May, the group, which was launched in Denver in 1984, unveiled its Renaissance Downtown Lofts, a project seeing the construction of just over 100 units on a half-acre site in Denver. By Garry Boulard Offering a first place prize of $10,000, the Denver-based Fentress Architects has announced its annual Global Challenge, an international design competition challenging young and student architects to imagine the look, functionality, and purpose of airport terminals in the year 2075. Part of the competition challenge, according to a Fentress Architects’ press release, tasks respondents with taking into consideration “local context, technological trends, project feasibility and passenger experience.” That the internationally known architecture firm - with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, London, and Shanghai - is the sponsor for what will be the seventh year the competition has been held surprises no one. Launched in 1980, Fentress, which has taken on more than $42 billion in architecture projects worldwide, has emerged as a premiere public space design firm, with a particular emphasis on airports. In November, firm founder Curtis Fentress, speaking during an industry forum at the A+D Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles, noted that the almost inevitable and typical big box airport passenger facilities seen heretofore around the world were designed for efficiency. Unfortunately, said Fentress, that’s been an “efficiency for the airplane - not so much efficiency and kindness for the passengers, necessarily.” In response, Fentress has made a career out of creatively expanding concepts of what a modern terminal should be, with perhaps the Denver International Airport being the most stunning example of his firm’s vision. Consistently top-rated by the American Institute of Architecture, the DIA’s design, said Fentress at the Los Angeles meeting, “made a statement when it was built that created something different about airports, saying it could be light and airy and fluffy and create a sense of place, a relationship to its environment.” The DIA project, according to architectural historian Peter Christensen in the book Now Boarding: Fentress Airports +the Architecture of Flight, “rose to the occasion of rendering the largest international airport in the United States as one with an effortless light touch that delaminated not only the barriers from ‘curbside to airside,’ but also from the ground to sky.” According to a Fentress Architects spokesperson, the firm, under the founder’s guidance, “passionately pursues the creation of iconic public architecture.” And that passion has inspired such projects as the Orlando International Airport’s South Terminal C, which is slated for completion in 2020, and according to the firm’s spokesperson, embodies “approaches inspired by the local character and creating a unique sense of place.” A protégé of legendary modernist architect I.M. Pei, Fentress has frequently stated that his mission as an architect is to transform the insulating and enclosing feel of public buildings into something more open and humanistic. “Sometimes, with flight delays and things that happen, the experience can feel quite gruesome,” Fentress said of the all-too-typical passenger experience in airports everywhere. Speaking with reporter Curtis Tate, Fentress added: “What we as architects try to do is make the experience as pleasant as possible.” Beyond airports, Fentress Architects have left its mark on any number of civic and court buildings, museums, and convention centers, prompting Ray Mark Rinaldi of the Denver Post to remark that each of the firm’s projects has been a “big, bold statement rendered in rock, steel, and glass, and fortified to last the ages.” Rinaldo went on to make a prediction: half a century from now, Denver may or may not be known as the home of Governor John Hickenlooper or football great John Elway, but “the things that Curt Fentress dreamed up will still be standing, not history but a vital part of everyday life.” The firm is currently undertaking the renovation design of the Denver Art Museum’s North Museum, which is slated for completion in 2021, and earlier this year was given the job of designing the innovative rooftop expansion of the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. While Fentress Architects has left its impact on locales around the globe, it remains a quintessentially Colorado company, its work partly inspired by the thriving economy of the Mile High State. In fact, the state’s growth, said the firm spokesperson, “emphasizes the importance of designing flexible architecture to prepare for future expansions,” adding that Fentress’ design philosophy will continue to focus on a “timeless desire based in logic, beauty, and humanism that maximizes flexibility, efficiency and adaptability for the future.” By Garry Boulard On an open 57-acre site in the El Paso suburb of Canutillo, plans are underway to build a new industrial park designed to serve as a home to manufacturing facilities competing in the global market.
El Paso Water Utilities say it will build the park at Interstate 10, not far from Los Mochis Drive, some 15 miles to the northwest of downtown El Paso. El Paso Water Utilities is run by the city of El Paso’s Public Service Board and oversees the operation of all of the city’s water and wastewater systems. The project has just received a vote of confidence from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration, which promotes competitiveness in regions across the country, in the form of a $1 million grant. That money will be applied to the building of water and infrastructure at the site, an effort that is expected to cost a total of $4.7 million. In a statement, Texas Governor Greg Abbott lauded the creation of the park, noting that the El Paso region is one of the country’s “largest manufacturing centers and a hub of international trade.” Plans call for the infrastructure work at the site to take up to 18 months to complete. By Garry Boulard Although spending on the construction and upgrading of corrections facilities has significantly dropped, other public infrastructure and facility projects are contributing to an overall investment increase for state and local governments.
That is one of the findings in just-released Census Bureau numbers showing that state and local government construction spending will most likely total $275 billion this year. That figure is $15 billion more than last year’s total, and is attributable to increased spending on schools, roads, airport, and mass transit projects. According to the Census report, some $94 billion will be spent this year at the state and local level on highway and street projects, followed by $45 billion on school facility projects. Air transportation projects are expected to be worth $14 billion this year, up from $9.8 billion in 2011; while mass transit project spending is now at $8 billion, up from $5.9 billion in 2011. The only public facility spending decrease is coming in corrections projects, amounting to $4 billion this year, substantially less than the more than $8 billion spent on such projects a decade ago. The reasons for that drop are many, according to Governing Magazine, which notes that incarceration rates and the prison population has “started to decline after decades of steep growth.” The publication adds: “It’s also likely that privatization of prisons has enabled states to avoid building or upgrading some correctional facilities.” Altogether, state and local government spending, according to the Census numbers, have been steadily increasing since 2014, when the total projects came in at $250 billion. By Garry Boulard A Denver-based energy company has announced that it will commit upwards of $500 million to the construction of a network of new pipelines in three Colorado counties. The project, according to Mark Erickson, chief executive officer of Extraction Oil & Gas, will “enhance our upstream value by driving significant reductions in lease operating expense and well cost, greater product capture, and increased flow capture.” In a statement, Erickson also said that the new pipeline construction, upon completion, will provide a “potentially large value uplift for Extraction shareholders upon any eventual monetization of our midstream ownership.” Launched just 6 years ago, Extraction focuses on crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquid exploration and production, primarily in the lucrative Wattenberg Gas Field. That field, located in the Denver Basin of central Colorado, encompasses more than 2,000 square miles between Denver and Greeley, and is regarded as one of the most productive of its kind in the nation. The company’s new pipelines will be located in Adams, Arapahoe, and Broomfield counties. Listed as the fourth largest oil producer in Colorado, Extraction has entered into a deal with the New York-based GSO Capital Partners to finance the pipeline project. As announced, GSO, a privately owned hedge fund, is purchasing $150 million of preferred shares in the Extraction subsidiary Elevations Midstream, as part of that agreement. In late December, Extraction announced that it would spend between $770 million and $840 million this year, drilling anywhere from 170 to 175 wells. By Garry Boulard For just over a decade, the famed Route 66, which connects Chicago with southern California, ran through the Village of Los Lunas.
That roadway, according to a study released several years ago by the Village called Los Lunas Route 66, “brought hundreds of thousands of travelers through the Village of Los Lunas before it was re-routed, spurring the creation of many businesses such as garages, hotels, and cafes designed to serve the motoring population.” Now, Village officials would like to commemorate the historic importance of Route 66 in Los Lunas with the construction of a museum and visitors center. To that end, Los Lunas, in conjunction with the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning, has received a $25,000 grant to facilitate planning for the new building. That money is coming from the National Endowment for the Arts. If all goes as planned, master planning for the site of the new museum could begin in 2019 with a construction Request for Proposals issued after that. By Garry Boulard More than $120 million in funding is coming out of Washington for counties in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico that have lost out when it comes to getting their fair share of property tax revenue.
The Payments in Lieu of Taxes program, established in 1976, gives back to counties across the country property tax revenue that is unavailable when the federal government owns a large amount of land in those counties. In the West, as well as other regions nationally, those lands typically belong to the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. The funding sent to the counties under the program is usually used for any number of infrastructure upgrades, school facilities, and transportation projects. “These investments often serve as a lifeline for local communities as they juggle planning and paying for basic services like public safety, fire fighting, social services, and transportation,” Ryan Zinke, the Secretary of the Department of the Interior, said in a statement announcing the PILT funding. This year Arizona is receiving $39 million in funding, with the largest allotments going to Gila, Mohave, Pima, and Yavapai counties, each of which are getting $3.6 million. Colorado is seeing $40 million in PILT money, with the largest amounts, $2.3 million, going to Eagle County; $2.0 million for Larimer County; and $3.5 million for Mesa County. Some $42 million is going to New Mexico, with Chaves and Rio Arriba counties each receiving $3.2 million and Eddy and Otero counties getting $3.5 million. Michael Bennet, U.S. Senator from Colorado, has hailed the PILT program noting, in a statement, that it serves as a “longterm solution to provide counties and local government sustained funding and predictability." By Garry Boulard A Minor League Baseball team based in Utah could soon be calling Pueblo, Colorado its new home if plans to build a new stadium for the team can be finalized. The Orem Owlz, an affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels, have been playing in Orem for more than a decade, but have not been able to secure a permanent venue. In response, team owner Jeff Katofsky has been looking for other locations to move the team to, finally tentatively settling on Pueblo for what could prove to be the construction of a $25 million baseball stadium. Members of the Pueblo County Board of Commissioners have now entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Katofsky that will see the county trying to work through the process of securing a site for the new facility and arranging for its financing. In return, the Orem Owlz, soon to be named the Pueblo Owlz, will officially relocate to Pueblo, hopefully playing their first game in the spring of 2020. Officials in Pueblo have long wanted to build such a stadium, and say it could be funded through tax increment financing. Most of the talk has centered on a stadium going up near the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk, just off of N. Elizabeth Street. But the stadium project, as envisioned by Katofsky, would also see the construction of at least three nearby hotels in the immediate vicinity. Details of exactly where the new stadium will be built and when are currently being worked out by the Pueblo County Department of Economic Development. Pueblo County has additionally contracted with the Arvada-based LT Environmental Inc., an engineering and consulting firm, to conduct environmental studies of the possible sites where the stadium may be built. By Garry Boulard Hundreds of affordable homes could see construction in Flagstaff if voters in November approve a proposed $25 million housing bond.
Members of the Flagstaff City Council have given their approval to putting on the ballot a proposed bond that would be drawn upon to fund both new affordable housing construction, as well as the rehabilitation and renovation of existing properties. The proposal was strongly urged by Flagstaff Mayor Coral Evans who had earlier said, “Affordable housing is everybody’s issue. It’s tied to economic development, the economic sustainability of our community and workforce.” The decision to put the bond, which was originally pegged at $35 million, on this fall’s ballot comes in the wake of a survey conducted by Arizona Housing Coalition indicating that average rents in Flagstaff are becoming out of reach for many workers. According to the survey, the average wage of renters in Flagstaff is around $12 an hour. But due to rents for one and two-bedroom apartments now in the range of $1,100, such wage earners would have to almost double their income to afford those units. The electoral prospects for the bond question appear bright: a recent survey conducted by the City of Flagstaff showed that 66 percent of respondents were in favor of the ballot question. By Garry Boulard |
Get stories like these right to your inbox.
|