INC PARC Notes July 18 2017

INC PARC met July 18, 2017 at Brookdale, 2020 S. Monroe Street. Present were co-chair Cindy Johnstone, Marlene Johnson, Sonia John, Katie Fisher, Greg Sorenson, Ronnie Crawford and Diana Helper.

INC PARC discussed the forthcoming major music festival proposed for Overland Golf Course. It is strongly supported by the Mayor and his appointees. INC’s delegates opposition to Admission-based Events on public park land resolution was adopted January 2011 and a reminder of that was emailed again March 24, 2017 to Mayor Hancock, City Council, DPR’s Happy Haynes and Director of Office of Special Events. It was brought up at the PRAB meeting by Executive Director Happy Haynes that she had never heard that INC objects to using public park land for admission based events. There was a short discussion wondering if DPR believes that a DPR public golf course is not considered “park land?”

Sonia reported on DPR studies being carried out regarding the effect of gray water and recycled water on conifer trees, particularly purple pipe water used in parks. Ten parks are being studied to provide data on water, soil, and tree life. A private donor underwrote a study of deciduous trees, thirteen lindens, in some areas. The need is to find new species, with improvements, rather than to continue planting the same trees over and over. We have come a long way from the original days of city denial that purple pipe water could be harmful to trees.

The GO Bond proposal was discussed along with the Parks and Recreation allocations. For parks and rec it seemed to be more maintenance and upgrades than new and/or visionary items to serve the residents in the future. A festival park, recreation fields and other forward thinking items seemed to be missing from the Bond initiative. A request for funds in the Go Bond to purchase Park Hill Golf Course in order to add much needed park land by INC was not included. Regardless, INC and local citizens will continue to support and ask the City to make the land purchase a priority.

Cindy announced she will be resigning from DenveRight Parks/Rec committee. No one at the PARC meeting was prepared to volunteer to take her place.

Greg told of the recent Walkabout festival in Cheesman. Neighbors complained because of loud construction and tear-down at unscheduled hours, loud microphone and amplified music, short notice to area and parking problems. Greg asked if an “inconvenience fee” could be included when there is a festival that creates undue pressure on the neighbors. Again, was this event cost effective?

Ronnie talked about tubing on the S. Platte, enjoyed by nineteen happy floaters. A new Denver sport? Diana mentioned concern about watering DPR’s new plants in Prairie Park, and the need to provide irrigation to Buchtel Pkwy. trees if city insists on curbing the street.

The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m. Next meeting Sept. 19, 6:00 p.m. –Diana Helper

Picture by Ronnie Crawford

ADDITIONAL NEWS YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN:

On Friday July 21, The of City of Denver’s Motion for Summary Judgment regarding Placement of Stormwater Facility in City Park Golf Course was denied. This means that the law suit brought by Attorney Aaron Goodhamer will go to trial beginning August 21.
The suit alleges that the planned project—which will be funded by a large stormwater fee is designed to protect and shift the burden of paying for stormwater protection for I-70 and other public and private development from the builders onto Denver’s ratepayers. The lawsuit also alleges that the project’s use of designated parkland is not for park purposes and therefore contravenes the Denver City Charter, the Denver Zoning Code, and common law governing the municipal use of parkland. More information can be found at http://www.cpfan.org . Information can also be found at www.denverinc.org and by searching for “aaron goldhamer”.

There will be a one-hour courtesy public hearing Monday, July 24, 2017, introduction of Council Resolution 17-0687 regarding the three-day Overland Golf Course Music Festival The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. and will be held in the City & County Building, 1437 Bannock Street, Council Chambers, Room 450. You may sign-up to speak as early as 5:00 p.m. in Room 451 or during the recess of Council.
Please send comments whether in favor or opposed to your council person.
The proposed 5year contract is found here:
http://www.denverinc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/city-superfly-contract.pdf

Information is still being obtained concerning the Park Hill Golf Club. A survey was designed by The Clayton Foundation to

to ascertain what residents thought should be done with PHGC. Of most interest is page 16, which shows that the top picks of respondents for future uses of PHGC were Parks (50%) and Recreation (47%). #3 was a grocery store, at 43%
The survey can be found at http://www.denverinc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Clayton-survey-results-power-point-V3-June-2017.pdf. Other new and related documents can be found at http://www.denverinc.org/documents-regarding-park-hill-golfcourse/

***NOTE from INC PARC regarding this survey from DPR. Before responding please check the number of events scheduled for these parks regional parks.***

Take the survey on the Public Event Rest Period Pilot Program!

Survey Link: www.surveymonkey.com/r/RestPeriodDPR

In order to help protect park resources and maintain balance between recreational use and public events, a rest period was implemented for the 2016 permit season in Denver’s seven busiest parks. This pilot program was originally planned for April 1-October 31, 2016, but was extended to the same time period in 2017 in order to obtain meaningful feedback and determine any adjustments needed for 2018. Rest periods ranged from 2 to 4 weekend days per month (see this link for details). In addition, the 5th weekend in a month was not booked for public events (with exceptions for historical priority events), and no new events were booked on Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day.

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