Denver to Accept Proposals for City Park Golf Course Redesign

The saga of City Park Golf Course‘s proposed renovation continues.

On the one side is the City of Denver, which aims to close the course for all of 2018 and part of 2019 and convert 138 acres of it into a stormwater detention area that will temporarily hold and slow floodwaters during major storms. This represents part of the $200 million “Platte to Park Hill” project, which, in addition to protecting neighborhoods vulnerable to flooding, also involves the rerouting and partial burying of of I-70.

On the other side are citizens who insist the city’s approach is ham-handed and illegal. Yellow “Save City Park Golf Course” signs festoon the yards neighboring the park, the work of an organization called City Park Friends and Neighbors. Its website, cpfan.org,  provides information and documents related to the project.

CPFAN members argue that adding an underground reservoir under the golf course would violate water laws. The organization, citing Urban Drainage and Flood Control District recommendations, maintain that detention basins are considered a last resort option for flood control, as they contain stagnant water, are unsightly, breed mosquitoes and are costly maintenance nightmares. Natural storm water protection, which these advocates insist City Park Golf Course would provide, is preferred over engineered solutions. Aside from losing its historic significance, beautiful topography, rich soils, trees and wildlife, the “redesigned” CPGC would be an unsafe and unhealthy place to be.

In his legal challenge to the plan, former Colorado Attorney General John D. MacFarlane argued that the city charter does not allow using the golf course for purposes other than parkland. He also maintained the public could be damaged by closing and rebuilding the course.

The city moved to have the case dismissed, but on Nov. 21, Denver District Court Judge Michael J. Vallejos rejected the city’s motion, writing that MacFarlane’s “allegations in the complaint are sufficient” to proceed to trial, the date for which has not been set.

In the meantime, the city has stuck to its timeline, inviting design teams to respond to its formal request for proposal for redoing the 1912 Tom Bendelow-designed course. The likely bid teams are: Robert Trent Jones II (California-based designer of seven Colorado courses, including The Club at Crested Butte) and Landscapes Unlimited; iCon Golf Studio (the Broomfield-based designer of the Glacier Nine at Glacier Club in Durango) and Saunders Construction ; and Dye Designs (the Englewood-based designer of four Colorado courses including of Denver’s Green Valley Ranch Golf Club) and SEMA Construction.

Whether the team that wins the bid will actually get to move any dirt, of course, remains to be seen.

Complicating matters, Denver’s Park and Parkway System—including City Park Golf Course—joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The Colorado State Register of Historic Places also lists City Park Golf Course because its defining features are “historically significant.”

Some opponents of the city’s plan maintain City Park’s historic status should warrant its protection, since any redesign will use state funds and the State Historic Preservation Office reviews potential effects to the historic resource for continued eligibility. However, City Park Golf Course has undergone multiple changes since inception, the most recent of which took place at the beginning of this century, when a new clubhouse replaced the original Pueblo Revival one and a number of holes were lengthened.

And speaking of the clubhouse at 2500 York Street, it will host the CPGC Community Open House on Tuesday, January 31 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Expect all the above—and more—to be heatedly discussed.

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