By Emilie Rusch, The Denver Post
November 12, 2016
The commuter rail line connecting Westminster and Denver Union Station may not have received the same fanfare when it opened this summer as its airport-bound sibling, but developers have already begun to lay claim to the land around the only new station on the 6.2-mile B Line.
City officials hope that Westminster Station, near West 70th Avenue and Federal Boulevard on the city’s south side, could someday become more than a Park-n-Ride but the center of a vibrant mixed-use, transit-oriented district.
“Originally, RTD was just calling for a surface lot,” city economic development coordinator Jenni Grafton said. “But we knew the potential, not only because of how close it is to downtown but as a real catalyst for redevelopment in south Westminster.”
To that end, $75 million in public investments in the station and surrounding area — $40 million of which came from the City of Westminster — are nearing completion, highlighted by a new, 40-acre park south of the train platform spanning all the way from Federal to Lowell Boulevard.
When completed next spring, Westminster Station Park will host regional trail connections, nature play areas, a 14-foot-widepedestrian bridge, restrooms and a new road. Little Dry Creek was realigned through the site, lowering the flood elevation and creating a 2.5-acre flood control pond that will later be stocked with fish, senior projects engineer Seth Plas said during a tour last week as part of the Urban Land Institute’s TOD Marketplace conference.