FAQs

A new access road was identified as necessary to:

• Provide a longer access road to increase vehicle storage and prevent backups onto local roadways
• Reduce congestion and provide safe opportunities to exit the park when at capacity
• Remove the conflict and impact to the operation of Bally’s Arapahoe Park Horse Track and Arapahoe County Fairgrounds

 The current Powhaton Road and reservoir entrance is privately owned by Bally’s. At times of live racing, people often cannot get into their facility due to long reservoir lines extending a mile or more. With the existing entrance being privately owned, the city also doesn’t have the ability to improve the existing entrance. The creation of a new access road will also provide a secondary emergency access route. The current configuration is inadequate with the existing single two-lane access from Quincy Avenue south on Powhaton Road as the only means of egress. 

The benefit in shifting the access point to Harvest Road would be to provide an adequate length of roadway to queue vehicles during full capacity days, holidays and events. The proposed access road will provide safe entry points for alternate modes of transportation like bikes, scooters and walking. The new access will route all vehicle access to the Aurora Reservoir through the entry gate instead of allowing vehicles to access the dam, SCUBA and archery areas without having to pass through entry station/gatehouse.

The plan did identify a future access point at that location as part of the plan for a proposed community park. However, the road was intended to serve park uses primarily, not to operate as a main entrance to the reservoir. Ultimately, the development on this park property began with the newly built Southeast Recreation Center, and the access point to the property was subsequently built on Alexander Drive.

While Alexander Drive was one of the alternatives considered for this new access road project, the Whitaker/Belleview alternative was ultimately selected to separate recreation users from reservoir users, reduce costs and increase environmental protections.

The original master plan noted that “as more complete plans are made for other facilities in this area, the master plan will be amended following additional opportunities for public input.”

The capacity of Quincy Avenue was not analyzed as part of this study because past traffic analyses show that Quincy Avenue currently does not have any congestion issues aside from shorter event-related traffic (i.e. the Arapahoe County Fair). If the city were to keep the access road to Aurora Reservoir on Quincy Avenue, there would be no traffic capacity concerns for Quincy in its current configuration.

This route will not impact the Bally’s horse stables as there is a chain link fence between the two properties. Infinity Middle School will not be impacted as the vast majority of park visitors arrive from the north on Harvest Road and will turn east onto Whitaker Road or Belleview Avenue to access the reservoir. Infinity Middle School allows drop-off/pickup on the north side of the school along Belleview Road, but the primary drop-off/pickup is at the front of the school further south off the school’s private drive. The busiest times for middle school traffic are on weekdays from mid-August until Memorial Day weekend while the busiest times for reservoir traffic are on weekends between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Any overlap will be minimal.

Alternative 5 has a much lower impact on the numerous plant and animal species when compared to the other alternatives. The alignment follows already impacted soils remaining from the Infinity Middle School construction. The route follows existing 8-foot-high cyclone fencing, which limits the crossing corridors for mule deer and pronghorn. With its alignment on the far north of the property, this will minimize the impact to fawning areas typically located on or much closer to other alternative routes. If the city chooses the Whitaker Avenue alternative, the roadway is already graded and the storm sewer and water infrastructure has already been constructed around the bus depot.