Our CHILDREN Deserve safety

For decades, the Fairmount community has needed a sidewalk that will safely allow our children to get to school. Residents have created work-arounds, directing our kids to minimize risk by walking and biking longer routes through Van Bibber Open Space. But the last block connecting to the current west crosswalk has NO sidewalk and NO shoulder.

 

To complete their walk to school, our kids have been walking/biking through a drainage easement and detention pond. Something recently changed with the HOA at the development that owns the land with the drainage easement.

 

As a community we do not know what the issue is, but our children are now being asked to avoid crossing the detention pond and are being directed to walk in traffic, along West 52nd Avenue, outside of the school zone.

 

The crosswalk and school both existed long before the development was built.

 

Over 7,000 homes are within 2 miles of Drake Middle School. Over 3,500 of them do not have sidewalk connectivity. Jeffco keeps building neighborhood connectivity through Van Bibber Open Space but they are not connecting Van Bibber Open Space to Drake Middle School.

 

West 52nd Ave has existed since before 1939. The farms disappeared years ago. The developments have paid their fees to the county to fund infrastructure. Drake Middle School has expanded and is now home to 950 students—the largest middle school in Jeffco. Millions of dollars of capital improvement projects are funded for other communities.

 

Jeffco has over $23,000,000 dollars of funds allocated in 2026 from 1A money. This is not a matter of a lack of funds—this is a lack of Jeffco prioritizing our children’s SAFETY.

 [BM1]Suggest stating this again here since it’s so critical.