![]() A recently released publication issued by the Federal Highway Administration pertaining to the content of messages appearing on traffic signs and marquees has drawn the ire of two Congressmen. The FHWA publication, Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways, states that there should be a uniformity in the design of all highway signs that shall include “shape, dimensions, legends, letter style, border, and illumination or retro reflectivity.” But the publication also discourages the use of any popular or humorous references on such signs, which it defines as having “obscure” or “secondary meanings.” Such signs, says the publication, “might be misunderstood or understood only by a limited segment of road users and require greater time to process and understand.” “Similarly,” the publication continues, “slogan-type messages and the display of statistical information should not be used.” In a letter jointly written by Representatives Greg Stanton or Arizona and Thomas Kean, Jr., of New Jersey, the Congressmen remark: “While safety is our highest priority for our constituents traveling on our roadways, we have concerns about this guidance.” The Representatives continue: “We agree that clear, concise signage is important; however, we believe this can be done with humor while keeping the attention of drivers on the road.” The letter to Shailen Bhatt, Administrator of the FHWA, particularly points out that the Arizona Department of Transportation annually conducts a competition for the funniest freeway sign messages, with one of last year’s winners announcing: “I’m Just a Sign Asking a Driver to Use Turn Signals.” The Congressmen also contend that the suggestions stated in the FHWA publication “leave no room for state-by-state discretion.” “The expertise and oversight of the FHWA is important for highway safety,” Stanton and Kean continue. “But our States’ Department of Transportation create state-specific communications that ensure our local residents know what is happening and stay safe.” The Congressmen have further called upon Bhatt to explain the analysis that went into the new sign guidance, and what, if any “crash or fatality data” was used. There has, so far, been no response from Bhatt. By Garry Boulard
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![]() The planned demolition of a modernist two-story structure built in 1963 in Boulder is being delayed until city officials can determine its historical status. The building at 2111 Arapahoe Avenue belongs to the private Naropa University, an institution dedicated to Buddhist studies and learning. Naropa officials say they want to level the 5,300-square-foot structure in order to make way for a larger meditation facility space. Naropa, which purchased the building in 1999, says that new facility would be built large enough to house classrooms, a library, and two apartments. But members of Boulder's Landmarks Board decided to put the project on hold while a review is conducted regarding the Arapahoe Avenue building's history, architecture, and general condition. According to city documents, the building includes "many characteristic of the Modernistic style with Meisian influences, including a rectangular, modular, symmetrical form." The building's "vertical triangular fins not only accentuate the bold geometrics, but also are functional; they include small vertical windows," providing both light and privacy. The structure was designed by the well-known Colorado architect William Heinzman. The stay of demolition is in effect until March 7, by which time the Landmarks Board is expected to make a final determination regarding the building. By Garry Boulard ![]() Work may begin later this year on a new 56,000-square-foot facility that will be a part of the internationally acclaimed Georgia O'Keefe Museum in Santa Fe. The main museum, which was opened in the summer of 1997, is located at 217 Johnson Street, and houses the extensive works of O'Keefe, who died in 1986 and is regarded as a premiere exemplar of both naturalism and modernism in her paintings. Museum officials have long wanted to open a second museum on a one-acre site at 123 Grant Avenue, across the street from the main facility. According to the museum's website, the Johnson Street facility is no longer large enough to adequately store and care for the O'Keefe collection, which includes up to 140 oil paintings and 120 watercolors, not to mention thousands of photographs. The new exhibition space will also be designed to showcase the works of other artists. Members of the city's Historic Districts Review Board have now given a unanimous approval to what is expected to be a $75 million project. That approval came despite the objections of staff who said the project as proposed fell short of some city codes. According to the Santa Fe Reporter, museum director Cody Hartley commented that the objective all along has been to "build or create an iconic building worthy of our namesake artist and worthy of our community." The construction of the new facility will first require the demolition of a building that for nearly half a century, from 1941 to the early 1990s, housed a Safeway grocery store, but in recent years has served as an education annex for the museum. The demolition of that structure is expected to begin later this spring. By Garry Boulard New Harvard Report Charts Presence of High Rents, Even as Pace of Apartment Construction Picks Up1/25/2024 ![]() While rents in some sections of the country appear to have topped out, costs overall remain generally burdensome with upwards of 22.4 million tenants now spending more than 20% of their incomes on basic housing and utilities. So says a comprehensive new report just released by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, which also notes that a record 12.1 million people are shelling out more than half of their incomes on rent. The report, America’s Rental Housing 2024, acknowledges that for all of the forbidding numbers, rents in general appeared to reach a peak last year, with rent growth for “professionally managed apartments” at the 0.4% level. That’s a significant decrease from where things stood in early 2022 when the number came in at 15.3%. Perhaps contributing to the decline has been the growing number of new apartment construction. As of the final quarter of last year, some 436,000 new units had been completed. “This abrupt deceleration was geographically widespread,” notes Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, a senior researcher at the Harvard program and lead author of the new report. In a press release, Airgood-Obrycki added: “While the slowdown is a welcome change for renters, asking rents still remain well above pre-pandemic levels.” Even though the increase in new apartment construction is being seen in all regions of the country, the report notes that the nation’s rental stock is “older than it has ever been,” up from 34 years on average two decades ago, to around 44 years as of the end of 2021. “And many of those units fall short of baseline habitability and safety,” says the report. “Nearly 4 million renter households live in physically inadequate units.” Many of the units additionally are in need of energy efficiency and electrical system upgrades. Not helping matters is the ongoing decline in the number of low-rent units nationally. Rentals of $600 a month or less have declined by 2.1 million in recent years. Says the report: “Since 2012, the market also lost an astounding 4.0 million units with rents between $600 and $999.” In total, the market has seen a drop of some 6.1 million units under $1,000, with the Harvard report noting that “various market forces have contributed to those losses, including rental increases among existing units, building condemnations and demolitions, and tenure conversions.” While the problem of rent affordability won’t go away overnight, the report ends on a somewhat encouraging note, remarking that “state and local governments are seeking to reduce barriers to building housing that is more affordable and located in desirable neighborhoods.” These moves are leading to the reforming of zoning laws "to allow for a greater variety of housing types.” At the same time, suggests the report, the building industry “must continue to innovate less costly ways to build homes. If successful and achieved at the needed scale, these efforts could address the affordability challenges facing middle-income renters.” By Garry Boulard ![]() Planning is still underway on a project set for the south side of Fort Collins that will see the building of 116 new apartments. The Collins apartment complex will be built on the southeast corner of Harmony Road and College Avenue and was originally approved in the fall of 2016 by the city’s Planning and Zoning Board. But due to a variety of factors, including construction costs and delays prompted by Covid 19, work on the project has yet to begin. The project by Massimino Development, which was formerly called Brick Stone Apartments on Harmony, will feature master suites with such amenities as walk-in closets, nine-foot-high ceilings, and in-unit bike storage. Architect for the The Collins is Ripley Design of Fort Collins. The larger project parameters will include 5,300 square feet of common interior space, as well as four terraces and a roof top swimming pool. Earlier reports indicated that the project would consist of seven 3-story buildings. While the original city approval for The Collins is now more than seven years old, the planning and zoning board this month agreed to give the project more time for development. It is thought that work on the The Collins will launch later this year. Massimino Development, which is based in Boulder, advertises itself as a “fully integrated real estate development firm” investing in projects primarily located in the West. Among its other endeavors, the company, working with the Chicago-based Origin Investments, spurred construction of the nearly $69 million Farm Haus Apartments in Longmont, a 280-unit development. By Garry Boulard ![]() Public input in Phoenix will soon be solicited on a project that will see the replacement of one of the city's busiest fire stations. Located on the north end of the city at 403 E. Hatcher Road, Fire Station Number 7 is a one-story, two-stall facility that Phoenix Fire Department officials is too small for current needs. According to city documents, plans are calling for the building of a new 18,000-square-foot facility, with four bays designed to support both fire and emergency response equipment Funding for the project, which does not yet have an official schedule, will be coming through a $500 million general obligation bond approved by city voters in November. Of that $500 figure, $214 million is designed to directly target fire and police department facility projects. According to a list prepared last year by the city's General Obligation Bond Committee, work on the Fire Station 7 project is expected to cost $21.4 million. The Fire Station 7 project comes as the city is contemplating the building of three other stations, with price tags ranging between $21.4 million and $24.5 million. Work, meanwhile, was launched three months ago on the $6.2 million building of the new 21,000-square-foot Fire Station 62 at 9300 E. Lower Buckeye Road, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year. By Garry Boulard ![]() A Supreme Court decision that for the last 40 years has been criticized by many in the business community for giving federal agencies too much regulatory power is being re-visited by the higher court. In the summer of 1984, the Court issued a unanimous decision granting the doctrine of judicial deference when it came a federal agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous statute. What has come to be popularly known as the Chevron Deference came about as the result of Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council. The NRDF took the Environmental Protection Agency to court during a time when that agency was being criticized for being too lax in its interpretation of the Clean Air Act, especially when it came to companies like Chevron. In its deference ruling, the Court ruled in favor of giving agencies a certain amount of latitude when it came to enforcement activity, thus substantially empowering them in areas where the wording of a statute is not entirely clear. The agency’s judgment in such cases, said the higher court, should be deferred to, thus creating what has since been known as the Chevron Deference. A variety of industry groups have since attacked the ruling, with the National Association of Home Builders in a recent statement declaring that the Chevron Deference is “biased toward federal agencies by granting them broad leeway to interpret and implement regulations.” It is not known when the Supreme Court will make a decision on the Chevron Deference, but already court observers are making predictions: law reporter Amy Howe last week wrote in her website Howe on the Court that it seems unlikely that the Chevron Deference “will survive in its current form.” Howe added that a majority of the justices seem “ready to jettison the doctrine, or at the very least significantly limit it.” Reporting on the oral arguments in the case, the New York Times agreed, remarking that the "foundational doctrine of administrative law called the Chevron Deference appeared to be in peril.” By Garry Boulard ![]() A nearly 5,000-square-foot building in the Denver suburb of Lakewood that once housed a bank is set to go to auction beginning on February 5. The one-story structure is located at 9210 W Colfax Avenue and for roughly a decade was a branch office for Chase Bank, before closing some 3 years ago. Built in 2011 on the site of a former car dealership, the building features a spacious lobby, office space, and three detached car drive-through lanes. Designated as a Class B structure, the building sits on a less than one-acre site. In a restructuring move, Chase last year closed nearly 160 branch locations across the country, with six of those branches located in Colorado. Although the publication American Banker recently suggested that Chase was “running out of branches that it wants to close,” the banking giant has said that more location closings are planned for this year. A starting bid of $150,000 is specified for the two-day auction to be conducted by Cushman & Wakefield, which serves as the bank’s official realtor. The realtor currently has nearly one hundred listings of former Chase bank properties across the country, including half a dozen in Colorado. By Garry Boulard ![]() A long-simmering plan to build a new multi-use public park on the southeast side of Chandler has taken a significant step forward. Members of the Chandler City Council have given their approval to the City entering into a contract with the company J2 Engineering & Environmental Design, which has offices in Phoenix, to come up with a plan for what is a 100-acre site. The company specializes in landscape architecture, civil engineering, and hydraulic and water resources engineering, among other areas The City Council vote comes three years after Chandler's Parks Strategic Master Plan listed turning the property at the intersection of Val Vista Drive and Riggs Road into a park as a top priority. That master plan envisioned a three-phase development and construction schedule for the new rectangular-shaped park at a cost of around $16 million. According to city documents, the early visions for the project included space for a dog park, amphitheater, skate park, restrooms, shade structures, and multi-use fields. Some 10 acres of the site saw the construction nearly two decades ago of the Mesquite Groves Aquatic Center, which in the years since, with its swimming pools, interactive water features and lazy river, has turned into one of Chandler's most popular recreation offerings. A public input process is expected to launch later this spring, asking residents for their views on the development of the new park. According to a release issued by the City of Chandler, the Mesquite Groves Park project will be "designed and constructed in three phases, which will be determined as part of the conceptual design phase." By Garry Boulard ![]() Legislation has now been passed in both houses of Congress, forestalling an imminent government shutdown. But lawmakers must still pass a slew of appropriations bills before February 2 designed to keep a handful of the federal government's largest agencies in operation. By a 77 to 18 vote, the Senate passed a short-term funding extension that will keep things in place until a new funding deadline of early March. The vote in the House: 314 members in favor of the funding extension and 108 voting in opposition. House Speaker Mike Johnson said the short-term spending legislation is what is required to "complete what House Republicans are working hard to achieve: an end to governance by omnibus, meaningful policy wins, and better stewardship of American tax dollars." But Congressional reporters noted that within the Republican caucus, a large 106 voted against the extension. Those in opposition include Representatives Andy Biggs, Elijah Crane, Paul Gosar, Debbie Lesko, and David Schweikert of Arizona; and Lauren Boebert and Ken Buck of Colorado. No members of the New Mexico delegation were opposed. Congress must come to an agreement on a separate series of appropriations bill by the end of next week that will fund, among other agencies, the Department of Commerce, Justice Department, Homeland Security, the Defense Department, and the Department of Interior. Sources have earlier confirmed that a government shutdown could have an impact on infrastructure projects already in the planning stage, particularly when it comes to obtaining various agency permits. According to the Washington-based Center for American Progress, funding additionally coming through the Department of Agriculture for water and wastewater infrastructure projects would come to a halt in a shutdown, as would funding for "electricity infrastructure and communications infrastructure." By Garry Boulard |
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