Ordinances 301 and 302 on the Denver ballot asked voters whether to protect the 155-acre parcel as greenspace or leave the door open to development.
DENVER — Denver residents on Tuesday voted on two initiated ordinances to decide the future of a former golf course in the Northeast Park Hill neighborhood.
Ordinances 301 and 302 concerned the former Park Hill Golf Course, a 155-acre parcel that real-estate developer Westside Investment Partners bought for $24 million in 2019.
It’s one of the last large undeveloped properties in Denver and is protected by a conservation easement, signed by then-Mayor Wellington Webb in 1997, that requires the land be used to operate a regulation 18-hole golf course.
Westside Investment Partners has said it sees the future of the land as something other than a golf course, while some Denver residents fear the large open space could be turned to concrete.
Ordinance 301 was intended to keep the parcel as greenspace by requiring a citywide vote on any development on land protected by a conservation easement unless the development is for the purpose of creating a park or cultural facility.
Ordinance 302 was intended to amend the city’s definition of a conservation easement to exclude the Park Hill Golf Course land and thus keep the door open to development.
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Proponents of keeping the land as greenspace said that developers are transforming Denver into a “city of concrete” and that it’s important to preserve and protect open spaces to provide recreational, public health and environmental benefits.
Proponents of keeping the door open to development said that decisions on the land should be made by residents of the Northeast Park Hill neighborhood, who have limited access to affordable housing, healthy foods and job opportunities – all things that a mixed-use development could help with.
For more elections results, go to 9news.com/elections.
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