Residents Weigh in on How Denver Parks & Rec Should Spend Legacy Fund

As Denver Parks & Recreation works to update its five-year Parks Legacy Plan, the department is looking for public participation, with residents getting their first chance to weigh in on Thursday, September 14.

“What are you really excited about?” Alaina McWhorter, special projects manager with Parks & Rec, asked participants in an online meeting. “What do you want to see more of, and how can we be sure that we are investing our tax dollars in all of the goals and values that we have stated in order to maintain a healthy system for all?”

Throughout the evening, a strong theme emerged: Acquisitions were a priority for this group, starting with the city buying back the Park Hill Golf Course, which was purchased by Westside Investment Partners in 2019 for $24 million with the intention of building a mixed-use community. However, voters in June decided to keep the property under a conservation easement that prevents development.

“Please please include the purchase of the Park Hill Golf Course in your plan moving forward,” Alex Walsh wrote in the meeting's chat. “The current owners of the land are violating the terms of the conservation easement held by the city. An easy win for this department and this new administration to acquire the land ASAP and then design a new one of your special projects.”

Special projects are just a small part of the work made possible by the Parks Legacy Fund, which voters approved in 2018; it's filled through a .25 percent sales tax, and is dedicated to improvement and expansion of Denver’s parks. The Parks Legacy Plan guides how the fund's dollars are used.

The Game Plan for a Healthy City is the parks department’s overall vision, with a focus on its future and public investments. The Parks Legacy Plan is a subset of the Game Plan. “This is how we're utilizing the tax dollars that voters approved to really make progress on our Game Plan goals and achieve these high-quality park spaces for all of our residents,” McWhorter said.

She explained that the Game Plan for a Healthy City is centered around four key areas: adapting the park system to a changing climate, diversifying and growing the park system, reinvesting in the park system, and connecting communities through green spaces. These priorities translate into where the department will use the legacy fund dollars.

At the meeting, Owen Wells, the district planning supervisor for Parks & Rec, said the Legacy Fund accounts for around $50 million of the department’s annual budget, or a 50 percent increase in available funds.

“It's made a ton of things possible,” Wells said.

This includes waterway restoration and irrigation upgrades to save millions of gallons of water and maintenance of bathrooms, playgrounds and fields that had desperately needed work for years. “We've invested nearly $80 million in park assets that were rated poor and are now brand-new and able to serve the next generation of park-goers," Wells said.

As Denver has its first new mayor in twelve years, the parks department is also working toward priorities identified by Mike Johnston’s administration. This includes helping revitalize downtown Denver through improvements at Skyline Park.

“Our downtown parks have suffered, Skyline being one example,” said Gordon Roberston, director of Planning, Design and Construction, at Thursday's forum. “Civic Center has made a great rebound, and we're starting to see a lot more use and safety in that park. Skyline is a project that we're working on today to really bring life back to the Central Business District with new and exciting amenities.”

Also new to Parks & Rec — thanks to the Legacy Fund — is an established acquisition program that has added nearly 500 acres of park land within Denver city limits, and even more in the city’s mountain park system. Denver officials are working to get everyone within a ten-minute walk or roll of a park as part of the Game Plan.

The parks department has spent about $10.5 million from the Legacy Fund on acquisitions so far this year, according to Wells. Robertson expects it will spend about $15 million before the year is over.

During the meeting, residents continued to ask the city to dish out more dough for the Park Hill Golf Course; many said it was a specific priority for them. “The Park Hill Golf Course is a rare opportunity to develop another large park (with existing mature trees) rivaling Washington Park and City Park within the city limits,” Claudia Winkler commented. “Once land is developed, it’s gone. Don’t blow this.”

Wells said there isn’t much to report on the golf course at the moment. “The golf course is not currently for sale,” Robertson added. “There's no one willing to talk to us about buying it, but we are willing, ready and able to do so based on our mayor's direction and the property being available for sale, so we are kind of biding our time.”

Other commenters on Thursday brought up taking better care of trees planted in city parks and making more green spaces where people can walk. Of course, pickleball came up, with several people saying they wanted more courts.

In Johnston’s draft budget, announced on September 14, he proposed $2 million for “implementation, enhancement and maintenance of citywide pickleball.”

“Pickleball has been leading in the news quite a bit, and we are working hard to catch up,” Robertson said. “An eye toward new, trending recreation is another area where we want to focus. I know skateboarding has kind of come back to life, and we've heard a lot about more skate parks in Denver, so that's something we're also working on.”

The city is hosting three more open houses and encouraging people to fill out a virtual survey to share more feedback. The other forums are on September 26 from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Swansea Recreation Center; September 28 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Cook Park Recreation Center; October 4 from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Barnum Recreation Center.

Parks & Rec will draft its plan this fall, then host another round of engagement talks on the draft before finalizing the plan by next spring. “There are some really unique things here in Denver, and much of that is the result of the foresight of our predecessors stretching back 100 years and creating this legacy for us,” Wells concluded. “It's our collective jobs as stewards of this resource to figure out, how do we maintain that legacy? And how do we continue to expand, to grow it, as the city evolves?"