Saturday, October 31, 2009

Councilor Keeping Project Alive

By Rosalie Rayburn
Copyright © 2009 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
          A West Side councilor says he's ready to step into the breach to save $5 million in funding for a project that would link Unser in Albuquerque to Rio Rancho.
        Ken Sanchez plans to take over a bill proposed by outgoing District 5 Councilor Michael Cadigan until Cadigan's newly elected successor, Dan Lewis, takes office in December.
        "We would hate to see that process die. If I can pick up the bill and temporarily sponsor it, that will keep it alive," Sanchez said.
        Unser is a major north-south tributary carrying vehicles to Interstate 40.
        But a critical part of the road that would connect the West Side with Rio Rancho is missing. West Side and Rio Rancho residents and property owners have been clamoring for years to get the gap closed.
        They say it would relieve traffic congestion on Coors and facilitate retail development for growing subdivisions.
        At present, Unser is a four-lane road for a few miles north of I-40. Then it abruptly narrows to two lanes, does a sharp chicane and splits. One fork, Universe, extends north past Volcano Vista High School and the Ventana Ranch community and ends north of Irving.
        The other fork is close to Compass, where the city plans the extension that will ultimately connect Unser with a section of the road that runs south from U.S. 550, through Rio Rancho to Paradise Boulevard.
        The city of Albuquerque is committed to building a 2.5-mile two-lane road that would extend Unser from Compass to Paradise Boulevard, said Michael Riordan, acting director for Albuquerque's municipal development department.
        He estimates construction will cost about $7 million. That doesn't include about $2.75 million the city has spent to acquire a right of way and about $100,000 on design work. The money came mostly from impact fees, Riordan said.
        He said the city also has about $2 million in impact fees set aside for the project. The $5 million Cadigan proposed the city allocate from transportation funding should be enough to cover the total cost, Riordan said.
        But there's a hiccup.
        Cadigan lost his Oct. 6 bid for reelection to Lewis. Cadigan then missed the meeting in which councilors were to vote on the bill, causing it to be deferred until early December. Cadigan said he felt the Unser funding was a decision the new council should make.
        Lewis said he plans to take up the Unser funding proposal when he takes office in December. Concerned that the bill could die unless another sitting councilor temporarily assumed sponsorship, he said he asked Sanchez to be the interim sponsor.
        Build Unser Now, a group of West Side and Rio Rancho residents and property owners, has been lobbying city officials and gathering hundreds of petition signatures to persuade the city to move forward on the project.
        "The people that sign a lot of the petitions, they'll say we have to work Downtown or at Jefferson and I-25, but we have to live on this side — and we have no way to get there," said Steve Jackson, a Build Unser Now member who lives in Rio Rancho.
        As well as easing traffic congestion for commuters, the Unser extension would help attract commercial development and services to underserved areas on the West Mesa, Jackson said.
       

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