It may have taken years and years in the making, but then all at once, peace and a great place to walk the dog came to Park Hill.
Neighbors, developers and city officials fought bitterly through the 2020s over the future of the long-closed Park Hill Golf Course. Tuesday, they preferred to scratch the ears of each others’ dogs, try the temporary climbing wall, and talk over designs for the near future of the newly minted Park Hill Park.
The park arrived for opening day as the fourth largest in the Denver Parks and Rec system. Aesthetically, the overgrown greens still resemble the shaggy, shuttered former duffer’s paradise lying idle since 2018. Park Hill Park is only open during daylight hours for “passive recreation,” meaning a stroll or jog on uncertain pathways.
But the promise is all there, 155 acres of it, with distant vistas framed by the last of the orange-yellow cottonwoods, and posters on the surrounding fences promising future ballfields, natural playgrounds and exercise trails.
“This is a big space,” said Shawn Leaks, who lives across the street, and was keeping one eye on nephew Daree as he took on the climbing routes. “I’m surprised they are letting it be a park.”
Kristen Searcy watched young Ogden Johnson try out a golf-target game, and said the residents of the new apartment development to the north that she helps market for are “super excited” about access to Park Hill Park. Her building has massive balloons and a big sign advertising “open space” among its many amenities.
“Our residents cannot wait,” Searcy said. “We are a very pet-friendly neighborhood, and to be able to just step outside for a walk is so important.”
Park Hill Park’s history was the equivalent of a twisting, 500-yard par 5 with deep bunkers and a threatening pond just this side of the green. Private developers wanted a mix of townhomes and apartments, a grocery and retail, while some neighborhood champions fought for years to preserve public open space.
The city held some cards in the debate with a conservation easement requiring it to be run as a golf course. But the warring sides couldn’t agree on a limited development, and the owners gave up in January, swapping the acreage for a big city-owned parcel for development in the DIA footprint.
Officially opening the park acreage will take at least a small divot out of Denver’s open space deficit in some neighborhoods. A Denver study of its downtown areas in 2021 found about 5 acres of open space per 1,000 residents, compared to the 10 acres recommended in national planning standards. That was down from 5.7 acres in 2016.
Denver Parks and Rec executive director Jolon Clark wandered the opening party with “Park Hill Dave” on a leash, a German shepherd that ran wild inside the former golf course for months before getting trapped with a “juicy stake” and put out for training. Clark eventually adopted Park Hill Dave as his own, and it was difficult to tell on Tuesday whether Clark was more proud of the dog or of the new public access to sprawling meadows.
“This is huge,” Clark said. “A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to deliver 155 acres to the people of Denver, to throw it open to use every day.” All the debate has ended, and now former antagonists are standing shoulder to shoulder dreaming and debating where the trails should go, or how many ballfields there should be, Clark said.
Public meetings through the rest of the year offer more chances for input, Clark said, then the real designing phase will start in 2026, with construction to follow soon after.
“With 155 acres, there can be a little something for everyone,” he said.