Denver’s City Park to Close in 2018

City Park Denver to Close 2018, The City Park Golf Course Redesign
The view of downtown Denver from City Park Golf Course. Photo credit Patrick Drickey.

Four years ago, Denver’s City Park Golf Course celebrated its 100th anniversary with a Tee-Off Breakfast at its clubhouse.

Since last March, however, a number of other citizens have teed off on the City of Denver’s plan to turn the golf course into a stormwater detention site. The project, which aims to mitigate the effects of flooding in surrounding neighborhoods by using the course to hold floodwaters during major storms, will close the course for all of 2018 and part of 2019.

Seeking feedback from the golf community and local residents, The City of Denver held a “community workshop” last night at the City Park clubhouse to “engage the community and gather input on draft design guidelines, which will inform the ultimate design and construction of the project.”

The emailed invitation to the meeting included photographs of five courses across the country—including Lakewood Country Club and CommonGround Golf Course in Colorado—that “beautifully integrated” stormwater detention into their course designs.

The City Park Golf Course Redesign
City Park’s clubhouse, completed in 2003.

According to the invitation, “The City Park Golf Course Redesign also presents an opportunity to consider how all elements of the course fit and work together to ensure it continues to be a tremendous asset to golfers and community members alike. Simply put, City Park Golf Course will always be one of Denver’s most popular 18-hole golf courses.”

Plans call for the selection of the Design-Build Team to occur by the end of the year, with the design completed and construction beginning a year from now.

But what will the venerable course play like when it reopens? Who will the city hire to reroute and redesign it? Will it retain its character and reputation? What will happen to the hundreds of kids in The First Tee of Denver program who play City Park’s “Chubb’s Course”?

The City Park Golf Course Redesign
City Park Golf Course opened in 1912.

Those questions and dozens more raise concern.

Whomever the city hires needs to respect the place’s historical importance. The 6,704-yard course designed by Tom Bendelow produced PGA Tour players Tom Woodard and Jonathan Kaye, as well as Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Dan Hogan and Colorado Golf Association Executive Director Ed Mate. It was also home to the East Denver Golf Club, one of the few places African-Americans could play golf during the days of segregation.

In preserving and possibly improving the course, the City’s solicitation and integration of the golf community’s feedback shows good faith. Since studies show that converting part of the land occupied by the course can help prevent flooding in Globeville and other neighborhoods, it should be done.

One can’t be done without regard for the other. After all, golfers live downstream, too.

City Park Golf Course construction update and schedule 2017 2018 2019
An estimated redesign timeline (courtesy of denvergov.org)

For more information, visit: https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/platte-to-park-hill.html

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