Denver Parks and Recreation covers the operations of 30 rec centers and about 20,000 acres of park land. So, a lot is going on at all times.
"With 270 plus parks in the urban part of our city...things are happening everyday in our parks...At any time we're doing 100 to 150 projects across the city," said Parks and Recreation Deputy Executive Director Scott Gilmore. "They could be small projects, but they could be large projects. From a playground being about a million dollar or million and half project to the Westwood Rec Center, which is upwards of $20 million. We have new pools. We're about ready to open a new pool in Green Valley Ranch. Projects range from small little projects to pretty large massive projects."
We've had a few readers ask us for updates on some of these park projects and we have some answers.
Looking for some more answers on parks or curious about some other parts of the city? Send us an email at [email protected]
Pickleball
No, the courts aren't returning to Congress Park, but Gilmore said the search for new pickleball places is promising.
Parks and Rec made the decision not to reopen the pickleball courts in Congress Park or add new ones to Sloan's Lake due to sound complaints, an issue Gilmore said is occurring nationwide.
There's also the issue of some players not following court sharing rules or playing before allocated time slots.
"It's definitely leading to some hard decisions that some pickleball people are not happy with," Gilmore said. "We will not be moving forward with putting courts anywhere where it's going to cause conflict and there's multiple conflicts that exist. It can be the conflict of the noise, which we all know...You also have the conflict with other park users. Pickleballers are pretty enthusiastic about playing pickleball. It starts when the park opens and it ends when they can't see anymore."
Gilmore pointed to current issues at Eisenhower Park. He said residents have been complaining about the noise and that some players aren't adhering to the time rules. Pickleball play at Eisenhower is allowed between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. only.
But Gilmore said some players are arriving earlier and staying later.
To work on these issues, Parks and Rec have decided that any new pickleball sites must be at least 350 feet away from residences and the courts won't share a space with any other sport, such as tennis.
The department also created the pickleball planning and advisory group.
Meeting notes are available for one session but Gilmore said the group has toured areas they considered for new courts, including CJ Burns Park at Colorado Boulevard and Alameda Avenue.
The visit determined that that site wasn't viable because of parking concerns, storm drainage usage and, again, noise concerns from nearby residents.
One location Parks and Rec is considering is the Northfield Athletic Complex in the Central Park neighborhood. That fits the distance criteria from residences and has ample space.
Gilmore said there will be sound mitigation tests and recommendations given to Parks on what the committee thinks the space should look like but he believes Northfield will be a great location.
"[The Northfield Complex] is plenty far enough away from homes. It's vast...It's flat. This will fit incredibly well," Gilmore said. "We have identified approximately $2 million to move forward on building some courts in the proper location. That is one location that we are definitely leaning toward. Once I get the recommendations from the Pickleball Advisory Group, we'll make some hard decisions, but I think we're already kind of moving towards starting a concept design for Northfield."
Here's a list of active pickleball courts:
Bear Valley Park
Eisenhower Park
Huston Lake Park
Martin Luther King Jr. Park
Northfield Athletic Complex
Skyland Park
Skyline Park (open through 9/30/2023)
Landscaping
Gilmore is asking folks for a little bit of a grace period if they are noticing taller grass and weeds. It's also sort of on purpose.
Water usage is down, thanks to the rain, he said, but there's also an increase in natural vegetation because of just how much rain we've gotten. The department will not be mowing that excess.
The vegetation, Gilmore said, returns the area to its natural state and is beneficial for the native wildlife and plant life. Not mowing decreases the amount of pollution that may enter into the water streams and lessens the need for irrigation.
"We've been heading in that direction and with all the rain people see these stands of grasses that are pretty significant and they're wanting us to mow them and we are not gonna mow them," Gilmore said. "It's not healthy."
Verbena Park
Verbena Park in East Colfax is finally getting a facelift. Plans to revamp Verbena have been in the works since early 2021 and, according to Gilmore, construction is set to begin in the coming summer months.
After two community outreach meetings, it was determined that the basketball court and playground needed major renovations. Residents who attended the meetings were also interested in seeing more gathering spaces and updated amenities.
The new court will be full-sized and repaved with basketball lines as well as futsal lines. Futsal is similar to soccer just on a smaller hard court instead of a grassy playing field. Spectator benches will be added to the sides of the court, as well as some buffer space between the court and walkways.
The park will be getting new playground equipment with an aviation-theme. It'll also be ADA-inclusive. DPR is also adding picnic tables, grills, coal bins, memorial benches and a community plaque.
Infrastructure changes will include a new irrigation system and improved drainage in the athletic field.
That roped-off section of Congress Park
A reader wrote-in to Denverite asking us to check-in on a portion of Congress Park that's been blocked off since Memorial Day.
Well, Gilmore said that area has been roped off due to dogs being off-leash in the area.
According to DPR, having a dog off leash is the most cited park violation. Gilmore said typically park rangers are around to deter rule breakers, but when they aren't, roping off the area does the trick.
"That is the result of people not following the rules of the park," Gilmore said. "They run their dogs there so much, it ruins the turf. Us closing specific areas are happening across our systems in areas where we are dealing with people running their dogs off-leash."
There are 12 off-leash parks around the city and the department is working on adding more.
An off-leash park was tested at Quality Hill Park in Capitol Hill, but Gilmore said that location didn't work out.
"We popped up a little dog park, but because of the ongoing challenges with dogs barking and the impact to the quality of life to individuals surrounding that dog park, even though it was incredibly heavily used, we made a decision to move that to Zeckendorf Plaza," Gilmore said.
Zeckendorf is about 10 minutes from Quality Hill. It's larger and is near a ton of residences but it is off of Speer Boulevard. Gilmore said they have heard concerns of the space being so close to a major road but the park is fenced in and due to their being less residents nearby, no one has complained about the noise levels.
"We know that there's a desperate need for dog parks, especially in the downtown area, so we're just trying to respond to that need," Gilmore said. "It's been hugely successful, so I would think we would be looking at making this a permanent dog park in our system."
Here's a list of dog parks in the city. Generally, the parks are open from sunrise to sundown, and all dogs at the park must have up to date permitting and licensing. Aggressive dogs, female dogs in estrus and dogs that do not have a current rabies vaccination tags are not allowed at the parks, according to the park rules.
Barnum Dog Park - N. Julian St. between W. 4th Ave and W. 5th Ave
Berkeley Dog Park - Sheridan & West 46th
Carla Madison Dog Park - 2405 E Colfax Ave
Fuller Dog Park - Franklin & East 29th
Green Valley Ranch East Dog Park - Jebel & East 45th
Greenway Dog Park - E 22nd Ave & Syracuse Street
Kennedy Dog Park - Hampden & South Dayton
Little Box Car - Broadway & Lawrence St.
Lowry Dog Park - East 4th Place & South Yosemite Way
Parkfield Dog Park- 53rd Avenue & Chambers Road
Railyard Dog Park - 19th Avenue & Little Raven Street
Sonny Lawson Park - 24th St. & California
