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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I south and east. Littleton, as Englewood, is developed primarily vlith middle-class housing. However, there are several semi- luxurious subdivisions, and the city borders on Greenwood Village, which is considered a luxury residential area. The fact that Englewood was a buffer between Littleton and Denver was a major cause of the fact that Littleton developed accor- ding to its own street pattern, unlike Englewood which uses extensions of the Denver street pattern. In recent years some or these streets have been renamed. However, the general arn10sphere in Littleton is still more that of a separate city. Both Englewood and Littleton lie in Arapahoe County, and Littleton is the county seat. Primary routes to do,vntown Denver for both Englewood and Littleton are Santa Fe Drive, Broadway and University Boulevard. Santa Fe,is a four-lane highway which formerly was the only route to Colorado Springs. This traffic artery is vastly overburdened, and carries approximately 36,600 cars per day from Belleview Avenue north. Tais is far in excess of what the highway was ever designed for, and there is no possibility of Santa Fe Drive's ever becoming a limited-access or high-speed thoroughfare because there would be no way of rerouting the many c~oss streets along its entire length. Relief has been hoped for in a future plan called the Columbine Freeway, which would generally parallel Santa Fe and the Platte River and be a limited-access highway. Very recently, a plan was put forth in which the two railroad lines which parallel Santa Fe Drive, (the Santa Fe and the Denver-Rio Grande), would reroute both railroads' traffic on just one line, and sell or relinquish the other line to some privately constituted body. The idea is that the vacated line would afford an already cleared, very wide right-of-way for use as a new freeway dovmtowu. Supposedly, underpasses could be built vh,ere needed. It is still too early to kno'", v,hether or not this plan will become a reality. If it does become a reality, presumably the more expensive Columbine plan would be scrapped or altered. Crmvded conditions also exist on the more minor thoroughfares, such as Broadway, University Boulevard and other streetso The present condition of the Englewood-Littleton area is that, although popular as a place to live, it has been hampered in the past and will continue to be hampered for at least a few years in the future with substandard access to downtown Denver. -2-