Nina Turner Continued from page 5
Determining the Future of the Park Hill Golf Course
organization and the alum network grow. At the legislature,
November Vote Promises to Reveal Community’s Prospects By Alfonzo Porter Power panel discusses political climate for women candidates...Photo by Bernard Grant
staff, has spent nearly three decades working to advance immigrant and women’s rights, racial and economic justice, and government accountability. As a criminal justice, sociology, and women and ethnic studies professor for 15 years, Calderón used her experience to build coalitions to organize legislative action to advance progressive policies. In a July 12 press release from Emerge Colorado announcing her leadership role, she said, “Over the past decade, we’ve seen the power of this
we’re witnessing leaders like Rep. Leslie Herod revolutionize Colorado politics. At the ballot box, Secretary of State Jena Griswold is fighting to protect our democracy every day. At the city level, alums like Candi CdeBaca are demonstrating why women matter at every level of elected office. The power of Emerge cannot be understated and the results speak for themselves.”. For more information about Emerge Colorado visit www.co.emergeamerica.org.
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s the November ballot draws near, efforts to determine the future of the former Park Hill Golf Course continues to intensify. Two competing groups envision vastly different uses for the 155 acres in the heart of the Park Hill neighborhood. Save Open Space Denver, seeks to prohibit any residential and commercial development – maintaining it as a public park. Conversely, The Holleran Group in tandem with Westside Investment Partners, who currently owns the property, favors a mixed-use plan that would include affordable housing, grocery stores, and other commercial development. Currently, the land is under a conservation easement that has been in place for some 25 years and forbids anything other than an 18-hole regulation length golf course on the property. In 1989, $2 million was set aside to buy the land. However, the $2 million was no longer deemed adequate for the purchase of the land. The Trust entered into an agreement that would essentially limit the land to be used as a golf course. The easement was then approved by the Denver City Council in 1997. The land was used as a golf course for almost a century before it closed in 2018. In 2019, Westside Investment Partners bought the property for a reported $24 million. The goal was to develop the space once the issue of the easement could be addressed; ideally, ultimately being removed opening the
Denver Urban Spectrum — www.denverurbanspectrum.com – October 2021
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door to development possibilities. However, SOS Denver’s primary aim is to maintain the easement, forcing a halt to any planning activities on behalf of Westside Investment Partners. In a recent lawsuit filed by SOS they assert that the city is spending money and employee hours working on development plans for the golf course, which is still bound by a conservation easement that requires a court order to end. The lawsuit filed by Save Open Space Denver also lists plaintiffs from each of Denver's 11 council districts, including former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, and former Denver mayoral candidate Penfield Tate III. The current development visioning process is itself the result of a legal settlement between Westside Investment and the city; which paid $6 million to cover a condemning 25 acres of the golf course for a stormwater drainage project on the property. The agreement maintains the easement but gave Westside a three-year window where they don’t have to run a golf course and can start a public engagement process. “This is a unique situation,” Penfield Tate said. “It’s as if they expect the city to give them something for free and allow time to campaign and strategize; forgetting that public tax dollars have been used to support this endeavor.”
