Denver Dems Support Elyria, Globeville, and Swansea Neighborhoods

The Executive Committee of the Democratic Party of Denver passed a resolution urging the City and County of Denver to consider a plan developed by the citizens of one of Denver's oldest, smallest, and poorest neighborhoods before finalizing plans for improving the I-70 corridor through Denver.

The Elyria 2020 Vision Plan, the partial tunnelization of I-70, and the full Master Plan of the Platte River Greenway represent an alternate plan offered by the residents of Elyria, Globeville, and Swansea who will be most impacted by the proposed widening and rerouting of the I-70 corridor through Denver.

Elyria, a neighborhood bordered by I-70, Purina, the Platte River, and the Union Pacific North freight tracks, is already one of the area's most polluted zones and is included in 2 Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites with elevated cancer rates in excess of 300% of expected rates. Numerous health studies attribute the negative health consequences to living near highway pollution.

The I-70 realignment option opposed by local citizens would require nearly four miles of elevated new viaduct through the community. Estimates show this plan would condemn 7 million square feet of property, displace dozens of businesses and potentially hundreds of residents, and have damaging effects on recreational, economic, historical, and natural assets. The tunnel proposed by residents would be less than a mile long and could have the effect of reconnecting neighborhoods currently cut off by the I-70 overpass.

Since the proposed I-70 realignment was made public in 2005, property values in Elyria near the new route have fallen 70% and foreclosure filing rates have risen by over 1000% from 2000-2009. The Elyria 2020 Vision Plan includes proposals that could help improve the neighborhood by reducing pollution, adding parks over the proposed tunnel, converting industrial brown fields into green fields, improving the Platte River Greenway as a model for sustainable development, reducing the forced isolation of the community, and enhancing its economic viability, in part by planning a fixed rail station at the National Western Stock Show complex between Globeville and Elyria.

Over 600 residents from Elyria, Swansea, and Clayton have signed a petition supporting a tunnel for I-70 through their neighborhood to eliminate noise and pollution, and over 90% of the resident homeowners in Elyria signed on to the Elyria 2020 Vision Plan.

The Elyria 2020 Vision Plan works from the assumption that most of the conditions that make the neighborhood a challenging place to live, work, and grow up in are a result of external plans imposed on the community without consideration of the impact on the residents. The Plan envisions a healthy working community with greater density, more jobs, better transportation, a reestablished connection to adjoining neighborhoods, and a revitalized sense of identity within Denver.

The Executive Committee of the Democratic Party of Denver believes the citizens at the heart of the proposed realignment and expansion deserve to have their voices heard on this vital issue affecting their health, their neighborhood, and their future.

For the full text of the Resolution In Support of Elyria, Globeville, and Swansea, please click here.
For the Elyria 2020 Vision Plan, please click here.
For Denver's Elyria Swansea Neighborhood Plan, please click here.