The long-stalled Jefferson Parkway took a giant punch to the gut Tuesday evening when the Broomfield City Council voted unanimously to give notice to the body overseeing the planned highway that the city would be withdrawing as a municipal partner in the $250 million undertaking after nearly 12 years in that role.
The city cited an elevated reading of plutonium discovered last summer in the proposed path of the highway as the chief reason behind its decision to withdraw from the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority.
“After that soil sample, I think it would be irresponsible to move forward with this alignment,” Councilman William Lindstedt said Tuesday.
The date of Broomfield’s official exit from the authority — where it has sat alongside Jefferson County and Arvada since helping form the body in May 2008 — was not immediately clear as the city and county still need to send notification to the authority board of its decision.
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