Wheat Ridge determined to tap potential of its only FasTracks station
“Tuesday’s meeting will specifically focus on the future of West Ridge Road. It is considered the future lifeline connecting Ward Road station, at Ridge Road and Tabor Street, to Arvada Ridge station, the Gold Line’s penultimate stop a little more than a mile to the east at Kipling Street.
Improvements — such as a dedicated turn lane, bike lanes and continuous sidewalks — are being planned for Ridge Road to make it a natural last-mile connection from people’s homes to the stations.
“Ridge Road will allow people to get to these stations and to the transit-oriented developments that grow up around them,” said Elliot Sulsky, a consultant with Felsburg Holt & Ullevig. “And as an end-of-the-line station, Ward Road will be a transit hub for the area.”
Johnstone said the area immediately around the station site already has the highest employment density of any of the seven rail stops on the Gold Line, which runs through a large swath of Arvada and Adams County before dipping south toward Denver’s Union Station. For starters, he said, there is the 15-acre site of the former Jolly Rancher candy plant that is ripe for redevelopment, as well as plenty of vacant parcels along Ridge Road that could accommodate multi-family housing, retail or commercial projects.”
Aguilar, John. Denver Post 28 October 2014.