Pitkin County considers supporting new nonprofit to address transportation issues

The Pitkin County Board of County Commissioners is considering sending its own members to participate in a new transportation coalition. 

During a Tuesday, April 22, work session, the “Transportation Coalition for the 21st Century” asked Pitkin County Commission members to fill two potential spots. They also requested an initial funding round of $18,000.

“The three really big (goals) that we always talk about is, one, dramatically reduce traffic congestion in the upper valley,” coalition founding member John Bennett told the board on Tuesday. “The second is to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, and third is to reduce trip times.”

Last week, the new coalition spurred commissioners to do some soul-searching on what it means to have another group addressing transportation issues in the valley. This week, the commissioners had those questions answered directly by Bennett and fellow coalition founding member George Newmann.

Commissioners Francie Jacober and Greg Poschman were the most gung-ho about joining the coalition, which is reserving seven seats for upper-valley elected government officials. Several of those seats have already been taken by members of Aspen, Snowmass, and Basalt town councils.

“I am supportive of this,” said Poschman during last week’s preliminary discussion of the coalition. “This might be the most important thing I work on, because it’s a huge problem for our community, and I don’t want anyone to think I’m dragging my feet.”

Commissioners Patti Clapper, Jeffrey Woodruff, and Kelly McNicholas Kury, however, had more reservations about sending BOCC members to the coalition. 

Clapper was concerned about potential conflicts of interest that could arise from having two members of the BOCC sitting on a transportation committee that is currently, and likely to continue, making funding requests of the board. 

“I’m concerned that, chances are, any recommendations in the future would come back to us or to (Elected Officials Transportation Committee) for funding, which is understandable,” said Clapper at last week’s meeting. “And I would be concerned that two members of the Board of Commissioners had already voted to move a request forward, and that would be a conflict for me.”

McNicholas Kury and Woodruff both agreed, but put more focus into the fact that there are already several existing organizations dedicated to finding and enacting solutions to traffic congestion in the Roaring Fork Valley.

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Pitkin County has a committee of elected officials fixated on transportation issues, known as the Elected Officials Transportation Committee, or EOTC. The committee includes officials from Snowmass and Aspen town councils, in addition to the Pitkin County Commission who are tasked with advising on fixed route public transportation in the valley.

But there is concern the EOTC is not doing enough to solve transportation issues on their own. 

“(The EOTC) seems like a great entity, but structurally, it seems hobbled,” said Poschman at last week’s meeting. “It was so frustrating last year to see how little the EOTC could accomplish, and how easy it was to derail.”

According to Bennet and Newman, this new coalition differs from the current ones in that it is a nonprofit primarily consisting of community members. It will have elected officials serving on the board, but it is not conducted under any specific government or municipality. Its role will be to analyze years of research conducted by various groups and municipalities in the valley, arriving at recommendations for solutions to the Roaring Fork Valley’s traffic problem with a focus on traffic upvalley.  

“So what we think is that achieving the kinds of goals we’re setting out will require weaving together some really big transportation ideas,” said Bennett. “New infrastructure, (improving) existing infrastructure, travel demand management, and successful new mobility and transportation strategies being tried in other parts of the world — those are the kinds of things we’ll look at.”

Commissioners all agreed that Pitkin County needs to have a voice on such a coalition. Jacober raised her hand to be the primary representative from the BOCC, with Poschman offering to be an alternative. They were open to supporting the funding request, but both assigning commissioners and granting the funding would have to take place at a future session in the form of a resolution.