City of Denver Survey Shows 4 in 5 Residents Want a Mix of Uses on Park Hill Golf Course

Erin McCann

Recently released preliminary results from a survey conducted by the City of Denver on the Park Hill Golf Course in Northeast Park Hill revealed that 4 in 5 Denver residents want a mix of uses on the property. The top things that people wanted to see in their community included a grocery store (85% of local residents named this as a top 3 priority), affordable housing (67% of respondents) and a park with athletic fields (73% of local residents named this as a top 3 priority).

“This is what we have been hearing in the conversations we have been having with people in the neighborhood, and that’s why this community visioning process is so important,” said Norman Harris, Co-Founder of The Holleran Group. “There doesn’t have to be winners and losers. We can have a grocery store in the middle of this food desert, affordable housing to help with displacement, and a large park where our kids can play. Let's work together to make something really special here for future generations.”

As part of a larger citywide visioning process, the city mailed 6,000 surveys to residents living within a mile of the golf course and collected 1,302 responses through April 16, 2021. The city also provided an open online version of the survey that anyone in the City and County of Denver could access. There were 1,388 responses to the open survey, and a majority of those respondents (57%) live in other parts of Denver and not near the Park Hill Golf Course. Notably, the priorities of the respondents from the community surrounding the Park Hill Golf Course were very different than the priorities of the open survey respondents from all over the city.

“This is why attempts to let the entire city decide what’s best for this property are so dangerous,” said Imam Abdur-Rahim Ali, the resident Imam of the Northeast Denver Islamic Center. “Our community has real needs and has been neglected for decades. We shouldn’t have our voices silenced. Frankly, what other neighborhood would even be asked to let other people decide what’s best for them?”

The Park Hill Golf Course was purchased by Westside Development in 2019 and is private property. There is currently a land use restriction on the property that prevents the land from being used for anything else other than a golf course. Westside Investment Partners has partnered with co-developers The Holleran Group on this project. They have already publicly committed to at least a 60-acre park, a diversity of housing options that would work specifically for this community including affordable housing, and spaces for the businesses and services the community deems necessary.

This article is a submitted press release from Erin McCann