Almost two years ago, Denver voters blocked a developer’s plan to build housing, retail and a public park at the defunct Park Hill Golf Course site.
Local activists celebrated the demise of the project. They wanted to preserve the entire 155-acre site for open space and recreation. And now, they’re set for an even bigger reward: Mayor Mike Johnston wants to spend $70 million in public debt to start building out a major regional park on the site, part of the Vibrant Denver debt spending proposal.
But that idea is reopening old wounds from the intense fight over the golf course — and voters’ reaction could help determine the fate of the larger $935 million debt proposal.
Members of the housing advocacy group YIMBY Denver are frustrated voters are being asked to spend public money on something they could have had — at a smaller scale — without costing the city a cent.
If voters had approved Referred Question 2O, it would have allowed for Westside Investment Partners to build a mixed-use development that promised 100 acres of open space on the land.
Now, "$70,000,000 is being spent to start (not finish) something we could have gotten for free, all because a small group misled enough voters about costs and outcomes to defeat 2O during an off-year primary election,” developer David Pardo wrote on behalf of YIMBY Denver.
Meanwhile, Park Hill Park advocate Woody Garnsey, a member of Save Open Space Denver, says the group has been pushing the mayor to include the park funding in his $935 million Vibrant Denver debt package. They are happy to see the mayor is listening.
City Councilmember Shontel Lewis, who represents the district, has pushed for the park funding to be included, even as other council members mull whether it deserves so much funding.
“Please, hands off Park Hill money,” she told the council. “We need to build up that park.”
The entire $935 million debt package will likely go before voters this November, broken up into a series of smaller packages focused on topics like parks, transportation and facilities. Denver voters have approved almost every bond proposal in recent decades, but this one is happening at the same time that the mayor navigates serious budget challenges, including a $250 million deficit, for city government.
In 2023, when voters considered the development, the mayor didn’t want to turn the entire property into a park.
At the time, Johnston supported what the developer promised: 6,000 units of housing, the developer-funded park buildout, space for a grocery store and other shopping amenities.
After a hard-fought battle, Park Hill neighborhood activists, led by former Mayor Wellington Webb, convinced voters to scuttle that plan. Denverites voted three separate times in ways that blocked the development – many hoping that the city would figure out how to build a park there.
Though Johnston won the mayor race in 2023, he acknowledged he and the developers lost the golf course fight. Upon taking office in July 2023, he began negotiating a land swap deal with Westside, which still owns the property, to secure the land. It would be Denver’s largest park acquisition in more than 100 years.
Now the city is in the process of taking ownership of the land, and parks director Jolon Clark says the deal is going smoothly.
For Johnston and Clark, the buildout of the park they initially opposed may become their legacy.
The global planning firm Sasaki is leading a $1.5 million community planning process that will determine how much the final buildout costs. SOS is impressed with the progress.
If voters approve the Vibrant Denver bond, the $70 million in debt could fund irrigation, landscaping, walking paths, parking lots and drives, along with a big playground, sports fields, courts, a water play area, picnic areas and a dog park.
The community has floated other big ideas: an aquatics facility, an amphitheater and a sports complex — likely costing an untold hundreds of millions. Those projects are not funded in the Vibrant Denver proposal. Further spending on the park could be sourced from other city capital funds, grants, philanthropic support and other partnerships, Denver Parks and Recreation spokesperson Stephanie Figueroa said.
Denver’s Six-Year Capital Improvement Plan states the park could cost $200 million in city funding, broken up into two phases. Operating the park would require staffing, too.
Clark expects to open the land for limited public use from dawn to dusk later this summer, depending on whether the city can secure a lease for the land from Westside before the land transfer is finalized.
