Renamed 'Slab' revs ahead

Notices mailed for Prairie Falcon Parkway Express

Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Don't call it Super Slab anymore.

The controversial 210-mile private toll road through eastern Colorado has a new name - Prairie Falcon Parkway Express - and a big new push to get it built.

Ray Wells, developer of the proposed $2.5 billion super highway, railroad bypass and utility corridor, dropped about 4,000 certified letters in the mail Monday morning to property owners within the 3-mile-wide boundaries of the project, which he has been nurturing for more than 20 years.

They are legal notices, required by a new law, outlining property owners' rights and how they can get involved in the process.

The corridor stretches from north of Fort Collins to south of Pueblo, ranging up to 30 miles east of Interstate 25, the congested Front Range freeway that the toll road seeks to relieve.

"We are eager to work with property owners, county officials and state and regional transportation planning organizations on this project," Wells said in a press release.

Wells didn't return a call to answer further questions.

But his company set up a Web site, prairiefalconparkwayexpress.com, and a toll-free call center at 800-977- 8393 to give out information.

Wells called the project Front Range Toll Road when he started it 21 years ago, though it picked up the nickname Super Slab.

However, the new name, the hiring of a Halliburton subsidiary and the formation of a series of corporations to pursue it represent a resurgence in a project that some opponents thought they had killed.

"He seems to be tenacious," said David Reed, webmaster of www.NoSuperSlab.org.

Rob Dougherty of Pueblo County, who runs www.StupidSlab.com, said he expects the mailing will generate significant new opposition.

"More people have joined the opposition in recent weeks than ever before," Dougherty said.

"The arrival of those letters will make it skyrocket."

And Wells' plan isn't the only private toll road being formulated.

A Littleton man who has consulted on several toll road projects and who worked with Wells on the Super Slab has filed updated paperwork for his own corridor.

William Tolbert filed documents over the weekend with the Colorado secretary of state for a 3-mile-wide corridor running east-west from E-470 to link up with Wells' Prairie Falcon Parkway.

Tolbert's Kiwi Corp. proposal calls for a toll road slightly more than 17 miles long along both sides of East Quincy Road.

Tolbert could not be reached for comment. But to comply with a new state law he would also have to mail certified letters notifying the affected property owners sometime in the next week or so.

The legal notices were made necessary because ranchers, homeowners, farmers and other landowners across seven counties got tough new legislation passed in the spring to try to derail Wells' toll road.

The new law stiffens the procedures for developing private toll roads, took away the power of private backers to condemn land and subjected them to tougher environmental and public-approval hurdles.

But far from killing the Prairie Falcon Parkway project, the bill provides Wells with a long and expensive - but nevertheless clearly spelled- out - process to follow.

The legal notices are among the first steps.

Wells already has filed maps in each of the seven counties, showing the parcels affected by the project.

Although he lost the ability to condemn property, Wells can partner with the state, which has the power of eminent domain.

Wells' filings show that the general partner in the project is a new corporation called Spirit of Cheyenne. No details have been disclosed about the financial backers.

"We're still formulating an investor group," said Jason Hopfer, Wells' spokesman.

"At this point, I'm not able to disclose who is involved in Spirit of Cheyenne because that's one of the vehicles for the investor group, and investors come and go. It's a work in progress."

The exact route of the highway remains to be determined but would fall somewhere within the three-mile width.

However, Wells' road wouldn't use up the entire three-mile corridor.

The highway, railroad and utility path would take up to about 1,200 feet, meandering anywhere within the three miles where Wells can most easily build it.