As the year 2001 got under way, the trauma of 9-11 had not yet arrived and thoughts were still focused on simpler day-to-day issues.

In Northern Colorado, transportation was growing in importance as continuing good economic times and an increasing population was beginning to choke traffic on Interstate 25 and many of the region's other roadways.

That spring, Northern Colorado communities were considering a proposed $100 million plan that would improve interchanges along I-25 at Crossroads Boulevard, U.S. Highway 34 and Colorado Highway 392 near the developing economic heart of the region.

McWhinney Enterprises, Larimer County and Loveland had all chipped in $50,000 each to fund the study, which focused on improving transportation routes along a six-mile-long, three-mile-wide stretch of I-25.

The ambitious Crossroads plan also called for widening Larimer County Road 5 just east of The Ranch fairgrounds complex and Larimer County Road 9 west of I-25 and building a new road along the Burlington-Northern railroad from Boyd Lake Avenue to I-25.

Another I-25 interchange - at Colorado Highway 56 - was seeing increased interest by the towns of Berthoud and Johnstown, which were annexing parcels adjacent to the interchange in anticipation of the region's next big retail development zone.

McWhinney was keeping its hand in the game, buying 1,600 acres in December 2000 on the interchange's southeast quadrant. The company also announced it would be expanding its 3,000-acre Centerra development to the east side of the I-25/U.S. 34 interchange in what would become The Shops at Promenade.

Meanwhile, ever-expanding Johnstown annexed the southeast quadrant of the interchange in preparation for development of 2534.

All the annexation and development activity affirmed the importance of the interstate as the region's primary transportation corridor and earned it its nickname: Northern Colorado's Main Street.

Fort Collins watches
Fort Collins, the region's biggest city and main economic engine, was content to stand by and watch the annexation frenzy. City Manager John Fischbach declared that the city had no immediate plans to annex land in the I-25 corridor - to the chagrin of some observers and delight of others.

Meanwhile, Greeley, the region's second-biggest community, was pinning its future economic hopes in large measure on Promontory, a 670-acre mixed-use development on the city's western border along US 34.

"We are the only city over 50,000 in the whole state that doesn't have access to an interstate or freeway, so (Highway) 34 is our lifeblood," said Greeley City Manager Leonard Wiest.

State Farm was moving its headquarters in Eaton to a new campus under construction in Promontory and ConAgra, which then owned the Greeley beef processing plant, was also completing a new headquarters there.

As the summer of 2001 approached, the focus on transportation was raised a notch with the announcement that eight Northern Colorado communities were working together on the Northern Colorado Regional Community I-25 Corridor Plan. The goal was to establish baseline standards of aesthetics for development along the interstate and create a future transportation grid parallel to and crisscrossing I-25 to help reduce traffic congestion.

The Northern Colorado Business Report hosted the "Interstate 25 Summit," a day-long conference to explore growth and development issues along the Northern I-25 corridor.

Keynote speaker Marilee Utter, a real estate development specialist with the Denver-based Regional Transportaiton District, told attendees that regional revenue sharing and intergovernmental agreements to share planning for transportation were the keys to avoid the corridor from becoming a hodgepodge of independent development zones.

Plan stalls
In late summer, NCBR came out in support of the I-25 Corridor Plan in an editorial by Publisher Chris Wood. "The I-25 Corridor Plan helps determine where new transportation infrastructure will be built in a way that takes pressure off the soon-to-be-overused interstate," he said.

By then, the plan was facing intensifying criticism and opposition from I-25 area property owners, environmentalists and others. "We believe the ultimate goal of the plan is to stimulate new development on the outskirts of our region's communities," said Janna Six, speaking for the Poudre Canyon Group of the Sierra Club.

Meanwhile, budget woes were putting several transportation plans for the region on hold, including a proposed $43 million Berthoud Bypass and the widening of seven miles of I-25 between Colorado Highway 7 and Weld County Road 16 to six lanes, estimated to cost $83 million.

As the year began to run out and the post 9-11 economic depression set in, only fast-growing Windsor had adopted all aspects of the I-25 Corridor Plan. Fort Collins Planner Joe Frank lamented the plan's loss of momentum and predicted that its failure to be adopted could be devastating to future regional transportation planning efforts.

"I think there'll be a lot of communities very disappointed," Frank said. "I don't think it'll destroy regional cooperation, but the next time it happens people will remember and it'll be a lot harder."

Nearly a decade later, I-25 has been widened, Berthoud bypassed, and the Crossroads and US 34 exit upgrades are nearly complete, but regional transportation issues continue to dominate intergovernmental discussions. Now the focus has shifted to alternative modes of transportation, including proposals for passenger rail along the I-25 corridor and expanded regional bus service (see related story, this issue). The Northern Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization, which brings together 15 local governments to deal with transportation issues, is crafting a long-range Transportation Demand Management Plan. It will be published next year as an update to 2035 regional transportation plan first published in 2007.