Passage of a new comprehensive plan that sets goals for the city over the next 20 years should not be delayed until after the May 7 municipal election, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said Tuesday.

Hancock’s remarks came after he unveiled Denveright, a plan three years in the making and the city’s first attempt at a long-range master plan since 2002.

“This started with this administration and this City Council,” Hancock told reporters during a news conference in his City Hall office. “It should finish – at least to the point of passage, with this City Council.”

“We don’t pass the baton like that. We don’t pass the buck,” he added.

Hancock is running for a third term as mayor. All 13 City Council seats are also up for election.

Some of Hancock’s mayoral opponents – as well as the Denver Inter-neighborhood Cooperation, which represents various neighborhood groups – have asked the city to slow down the process, citing the need for more time to study and discuss the planning document.

Denveright also arrives at a time when concerns over growth and development in the city have been a central theme in both the mayoral and council races.

Hancock noted that a similar request for a delay was sought when the city adopted a new zoning code in 2010.

“We own this,” he said of the Denveright plan. “We have a responsibility to finish the legislative process here.”

The document describes a wide-ranging master plan that covers such things as affordable housing, public transportation, the city park system and recreation centers.

For example, one goal of the plan is to create a city where no resident is more than a 10-minute walk from a city park or recreation center.

The plan will be the subject of a public hearing before the city’s planning board on Wednesday.

Two parts of the plan – Comprehensive Plan 2040 and Blue Print Denver – go to the City Council for a hearing and a vote on April 22.

A third element, called Game Plan for a Healthy City, goes before the City Council on May 20.