Denver City Council passed the rezoning of the Park Hill Golf Course on Monday, ending another chapter in one of the city’s longest, twistiest tales of local development.
This was the last vote needed on a deal to turn 155 acres along Colorado Boulevard into the city’s fourth largest park.
The land will no longer be considered private open space – which was the zoning that previously allowed the property to operate as a private golf course until 2018. Now, a zoning designation for public open space will allow more park and recreation uses.
“We are working to ensure that the community surrounding the park has a voice in the long-term, short-term and mid-term design of this park,” Councilmember Shotel Lewis said.
Denver Parks and Recreation and the private design firm Sasaki have been leading a series of community outreach meetings to learn what city residents want in the new park. Ideas include: sports fields, an aquatics center, pickleball courts, a skate park and, yes, a small golf course.
Those could take years to develop, but the city will open a temporary park on the grounds over the summer.
The land currently belongs to the private developer Westside Investment Partners. Under a deal approved earlier by the council, the city will give the Westside a piece of property near Denver International airport. In exchange, the city will get the old golf course.
That deal may not be completed until the fall, as both sides have a few months to inspect the properties before they finalize the deal. Until then, Westside will lease the land to the city at no cost.
Penfield Tate, a longtime open space advocate who fought a proposed development on the park, described the struggle as a David and Goliath fight – and characterized the city as Goliath.
That fight over development on the land went to the voters three separate times, and in all cases, voters supported keeping the land as open space.
“”It was a fight that should not have happened,” Tate told the council.
The park could open, in limited form, in the next few months.
This summer, Parks and Rec plans to open the land to the public from dawn until dusk. The plan is to allow limited, low-cost uses like walking paths, a disc golf course and possibly a dog park.
For now, the city is calling the place “Park Hill Park.” Building it out into a permanent city park could cost hundreds of millions, though a specific amount has not yet been named. It’s another major project that Mayor Johnston hopes to push forward, even as the city is facing a $250 million budget gap and layoffs.
The city has insisted the investment in the park won’t come from the underfunded general fund, but instead from the Parks Legacy Fund – a separate pool of money funded by a 0.25 percent sales tax voters passed in 2018.
The new park also could be funded by the $800 million Vibrant Denver bond, which voters will consider in November. Parks advocates support that idea, but Park Hill Park hasn’t been named as a priority for the package yet.
