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CHEYENNE — It has been two years since planners at the city and Laramie County began looking at how to address long-term traffic impacts on Fox Farm Road.
And now, after numerous open houses and months of public input, planners are starting to put together a picture of what the thoroughfare may look like in coming decades.
The Fox Farm Road Corridor Plan covers Fox Farm Road from Walterscheid Boulevard in the west to College Drive in the east.
The idea behind the plan, said Nancy Olson of the Cheyenne Metropolitan Planning Organization, is to develop ideas for how to prepare the south Cheyenne roadway for the added traffic that is expected over the next 25 years.
“The county planning office was interested in putting this plan in place for the road so when they’re required to do development actions, they can guide it in the direction that the citizens want to see,” Olson said.
Currently the stretch of Fox Farm being looked at is home to a range of medium residential, commercial and light industrial zoning. But as the area grows, planners see residents looking toward mixed-use zoning as well as growth of the industrial base.
“We’ve been talking to three major landowners east of College Drive, and they’ve begun to think about getting the land ready for development in the future,” Olson said.
“We also need to look at the major intersections to see how they may need to handle more traffic as the area develops.”
Gary Kranse with the Laramie County Planning and Development Office said one part of the plan involves meeting competing needs of residents and the local industry.
One concern for residents is the number of trucks that drive on east Fox Farm, particularly those that haul oil and products from the HollyFrontier refinery.
HollyFrontier and other industries, meanwhile, would like better access to the roadway for trucks.
One potential solution, Kranse said, could be to realign the intersection of South Industrial Road and Burlington Trail to make it easier for large trucks to negotiate.
“It’s a hard turn there, and it just doesn’t function well because it’s out of alignment,” he said. “The thought is: If it functions better, it’ll get used more.”
Kranse said trends have shown that residents in areas like Fox Farm are more likely to seek mixed-use zoning over time to include home offices and other such businesses.
He said that is likely to increase traffic on the road as well as on feeder streets like Walterscheid, South Greeley Highway and Avenue C. Interchange improvements are being recommended there.
Residents’ desires have led to recommendations to install roadway and pedestrian street lighting along the corridor as well as sidewalks, landscaping and drainage options.
Kranse said road widening is possible for some parts of Fox Farm. But residents have been quick to express concern about losing part of their own property in the process.
“There are no sidewalks, so we wouldn’t have to take any people’s property to get those in,” he said. “All the road widening would occur within an existing right of way.”
AVI Engineering of Fort Collins, Colo., has been working alongside the city and county to develop ways to meet residents’ and businesses’ interests.
AVI is continuing to collect public comments from open houses, like the most recent one on May 28 as well as from an online survey the city has set up.
“AVI will be putting together all the comments we heard at the last public hearing,” Kranse said. “Based on that, they’ll be making final adjustments to the plan and then it’d be time to take it to public hearings.”
In the meantime, the window for public participation remains open.
Those interested in voicing their thoughts can do so by visiting http://tinyurl.com/m6yudl3. There, they can review the plan as it stands, including what public recommendations already have been included.
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