Silverthorne officials gave primary approval to a long-awaited purchase of a $100,000 easement to extend the town’s Blue River Trail by adding a connecting segment. 

The purchase, which was described as a “long time coming” by Mayor Anne-Marie Sandquist at a March 26 meeting, will solidify an area located behind the Blue River Run neighborhood as Segment “6B” on Silverthorne’s Blue River Trail.

After first approving an agreement with Blue Valley Ranch Lake Association in 2021 to carry out the purchase, officials were eager to finally approve it.

“I’ve been dying to do this one,” council member Tim Applegate said before reading the motion for council’s authorization of the purchase. One more vote is required, which is planned to happen at an April 9 Silverthorne Town Council meeting.

The Blue River Trail, detailed as “Silverthorne’s recreational backbone” in the town’s 2021 Parks, Open Space and Trails Master Plan, is over 20 years in the works and currently runs 3.5 miles long. It connects to the Summit County Recreation Path at the Outlets at Silverthorne, extends through the upper bench of Cottonwood Park and ends at North Golden Eagle Road. It passes through numerous town amenities and natural areas.

Silverthorne’s communication director Kristina Nayden said Segment 6B “would eliminate the need for trail users to go through the Blue River Run neighborhood, keeping them on the trail and along the Blue River for the entire length of the trail.”  

The town purchased both a parcel of land and its water rights to carry out plans for Segment 6B. Public Works Director Tom Daugherty said the stall up until this point was the Blue Valley Ranch Lake Association had to get the water rights adjudicated, which was recently completed. The agreement set a deadline for the purchase of 45 days after water rights are adjudicated, but since the parcel isn’t in town limits, that isn’t feasible, Daugherty said. He said they created a lease for the property which allows the town to put money towards it while the Blue Valley Ranch Lake Association still owns it. Once the property is brought into town limits, ownership will be transferred. 

While it will create a placeholder for a future stretch of trail, “the design and construction of the trail have been paused due to budget amendments,” Nayden said.

The town chose to pause, postpone and reduce the scope of several projects in efforts to cut its expenditures by around $6 million for 2025 because of a downward trend in sales tax collections. Nayden said there are currently no cost estimates or timelines in place related to the construction of Segment 6B.

More recently the town constructed Segment 6A, costing around $176,000, which directly to the south of where Segment 6B will be parallel to Colorado Highway 9. Segment 7 was also done in recent years, which costs $209,000, and is the final stretch of trail near North Pond Park.

Before that, construction Segment 5, beginning at just north of Silverthorne Town Hall and continuing north for 1,800 feet to the Willow Grove Open Space and the Tammy Lynn Jamieson Memorial Bridge, started in 2013. This stretch cost $924,647.