In nearly seven years as mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper has sang the tune of “regionalism” in economic development and planning. His views on regionalism take on new significance now that he’s seeking to be governor of Colorado.

“The days of Denver making decisions for their own benefit are over,” Hickenlooper said recently at The Colorado Real Estate and Economic Summit. “And we recognize we’ll never be a great city without incredible suburbs. And that we will do everything from now on to make sure that, if we can’t find a decision that serves both the suburbs and the city, we’ll find something else to work on. And there was a long pause. And then huge applause. Right. Exactly.”

A key example of such regionalism during Hickenlooper’s tenure as mayor is FasTracks, the 122-mile commuter rail and light rail project he championed and which metro voters approved in 2004 through a $4.7 billion ballot measure.

“So here is a question Colorado voters should ask gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper: Based on what we know today, including 40 percent cost overruns, revenue shortfalls, and the trivial amount of congestion relief that FasTracks is expected to provide, would you still have endorsed the 2004 FasTracks ballot measure?”

That question was posed by The Antiplanner, a website of Randal O’Toole, a longtime critic so-called “smart growth” planning and of FasTracks.

For more from Hickenlooper and O’Toole about FasTracks, see WhoSaidYouSaid’s video…