By Paolo Zialcita | Denverite
The package can still change significantly depending on actions from the mayor and Denver City Council.
On Tuesday, we learned how the city plans to spend $800 million from a proposed new bond package.
Members of the Vibrant Denver bond’s executive committee unveiled the project list after weeks of work to pare down ideas from city agencies, organizations and neighborhoods.
The bond process was criticized by community members and city officials for being rushed and not properly incorporating public feedback — and Tuesday’s rollout drew a strong reaction, too, with some Denver City Council members implying they could vote to block the proposal.
The package will go before voters in November, though the project list could still be changed by the mayor and the council.
Here are five major takeaways.
A major emphasis on parks and recreation.
Most of the projects on the proposed list would improve the city’s parks and outdoor facilities — a major priority identified by Denverites.
Several parks and recreation centers, such as the Montbello Recreation Center, Garland Park and Southwest Auto Park, are slated for improvements like better pools, a new playground and new tennis courts. Sloan’s Lake Park also would get funding to improve the environmental health of the lake.
The city also would set aside funds to build two brand new parks. The first would allow the city to build Emporia Park on land it recently bought in the Windsor neighborhood.
The second, much larger investment would be Park Hill Park, the city’s ambitious $200 million project. It would be built on the old Park Hill Golf Course, which the city is working to acquire from a developer. While the city hasn’t published pricetags, the bond could pay for a significant portion of the new park.
“This funding level would require a phased build-out approach and allow for improvements to approximately 1/3 of the site including establishment of basic park infrastructure (irrigation, landscape, walks, parking lots and drives) as well as park amenities likely to include a regional scale playground, active recreation opportunities such as sports fields and courts, water play, picnic areas, dog park, and passive recreation fields,” a project description from the city said.
While Park Hill Park made the cut, dozens of other outdoor proposals did not, including an amphitheater in Montbello, dog park improvements citywide and a downtown climbing wall.
Meanwhile, transportation projects were deprioritized.
The executive committee cut many of the projects proposed by the Connectivity subcommittee, which made recommendations for projects that improved transportation, mobility, streets and bridges. While the committee made 65 recommendations, only 12 were included in the proposed package.
Current proposed projects include significant renovations to busy roads for both cars and bicyclists, like the viaducts on 6th Avenue, 8th Avenue and Quebec Street. The proposal also would pay for “citywide pedestrian crossing safety improvements,” “citywide traffic signal improvements” and the replacement of two aging bridges over Cherry Creek.
However, the executive committee set several proposals related to pedestrians and cyclists, including proposals to convert several streets into pedestrian-friendly “shared streets” and even close off Larimer Street to cars entirely. Traffic-calming measures along several major passageways also were left behind.
Jill Locantore, the executive director of Denver Streets Partnership and a member of the Connectivity subcommittee, said she was underwhelmed by the executive committee’s choices and criticized Mayor Mike Johnston’s administration for once again failing to meet the standards of transportation advocates.
“It just does not seem like it’s a top priority for his administration, particularly embracing bold, transformative projects,” Locantore said. “It’s a lot of routine maintenance, which is very important, but a lot of us don’t think the bond is the proper place to be funding those types of projects.”
Many neighborhoods aren’t getting a project.
City leaders centered equity when they announced the bond proposal in February. They said they wanted to cater to neighborhoods that have been traditionally neglected by the city in previous bond packages.
However, in the current bond package, many of the projects are in central Denver. While lower-income areas like Sun Valley and Elyria Swansea would get bond dollars for local projects, other neighborhoods — like Westwood, Central Park, East Colfax, Montbello and Green Valley Ranch — were chosen for just a few projects.