Denver craves affordable housing and treasures its open space. The Mile High City could use more small-scale retail space, too, to foster and stabilize small businesses and bring their services to underserved neighborhoods.

Referred Question 2O on the April 4 ballot will let Denver advance each of those priorities. And in doing so, 2O presents an opportunity at last to reunite a community too often divided over growth and development amid a desire to preserve green spaces. Question 2O brings those competing needs into balance – by fostering the rebirth of a dormant tract of land in Denver’s inner-urban core.

It’s why we urge a YES vote on Referred Question 2O.

The proposal grants a new lease on life to northeast Denver’s old Park Hill Golf Course, much of which runs along the east side of Colorado Boulevard north of 35th Avenue. The aging, private golf course ceased operation in 2018 and since then has been shut down and unused.

The ballot issue asks voters to lift an archaic conservation easement that restricts use of the 155-acre swath of land to a golf course only; city-owned City Park Golf Course is only blocks away. Removing the easement will not – repeat, will not – open the parcel to unbridled development. That’s because 2O effectively will be bound by another measure already in place.

In January, the City Council adopted a strict regulatory framework that will repurpose the land to the broadest benefit of a diverse community. That framework, which takes effect if voters approve 2O, is a development agreement negotiated with the parcel’s owner, Westside Investment Partners. The agreement is the culmination of two years of wide-ranging input from thousands of citizen-stakeholders most likely to be affected by the project.

It’s an extensive and unprecedented agreement that requires the parcel’s development to provide, among other things:

• More than 100 acres of open space, parkland and trails – two thirds of the entire property;
• Affordable housing;
• $20 million in funding for public infrastructure improvements;
• A mix of uses and a new neighborhood main street.

As noted on the city’s website, the land’s commercial development would have to, “prioritize community-serving locally owned businesses, affordable commercial spaces, and greater access to fresh food and grocery for the surrounding neighborhoods.”

It also will mean over 2,500 new homes in a city starved for housing, and at least 25% of all those residential units will be dedicated to affordable housing. Those income-restricted units will be half rentals and half for sale to owners of modest means.

The parks and open space provisions of the development agreement will create the fourth-largest park in the city. The expanse of green space will include new sports fields and a dog park. They’ll even plant 1,000 trees.

The list of amenities goes on, addressing just about every need for nearby neighborhoods. But it’s what the project represents in the bigger picture – a new spirit of coexistence and even cooperation, harmonizing Denver’s many competing concerns – that may matter even more to voters citywide. We’ll endorse that, too.

Vote YES on Referred Question 2O on the April 4 ballot.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board