By Happy Haynes | Guest Commentary Denver Post PUBLISHED: February 26, 2019 at 5:50 pm | UPDATED: March 5, 2019 at 10:18 am You may have recently read that Denver is losing park land. That’s simply not accurate. A series of articles from January, “The Densification of Denver,” implied that Denver is losing park land and open space with no … Continue reading →
Denver seeks to become the largest Community Wildlife Habitat in the West DENVER, Nov. 29, 2018 – Today, the City and County of Denver announced its intention to certify as a Community Wildlife Habitat through the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) by the end of 2019. The process of certifying as an NWF Community Wildlife Habitat will result in the creation … Continue reading →
Removing City Council from vote on DPR park use issues seemed easy a few years back, but putting the vote back in City Council is harder. Still, it is a necessary move, to give citizens a local elected voice. INC and PARC & ZAP are persevering. Also the public needs to know details on park budget expenses.
Proposed dedicated parks tax floated by CM Jolon Clark. Clark’s proposal would increase the city’s sales tax rate by 0.25 percent, or 2.5 cents per $10 purchase. That would bring the effective sales tax to 7.9 percent on regular purchases.
On June 5, 2017, the Denver District Court heard arguments regarding the City’s assertion that 220 documents (7,400 pages) should be protected by the “deliberative process” privilege—which stems from the “executive privilege”.
The Court ruled that the 7400 pages should not be handed over to the Plaintiffs
(those suing the city to protect CPGC) in the CPGC lawsuit. The City has repeatedly claimed in public and under oath, that they are committed to transparency and have nothing to hide. However, in court, the Attorneys for the City claimed that disclosure of the 7400 pages of emails and documents would somehow chill future candid discussion among city leaders and staff.
Full response to motion is found here
The community process highlighted the values, interests and concerns of a diverse community,” said Happy Haynes, Executive Director of Denver Parks and Recreation in a statement. “In the next stage of the process, our commitment is to fulfill the guidelines we set forth during the community input process. We are confident that we can reach an agreement that accomplishes that goal. We pledge to hold the event organizers accountable to protecting that which is valuable to our city, its residents and neighborhoods.”
“Seeing our Civic Center in a state of disrepair was for many in our city — including myself — deeply disappointing and discouraging,” Hancock said at a press conference Monday morning. “Our parks and public spaces are held in the public trust, and when organizers hold an event at one of these spaces, they have a responsibility to uphold that public trust. When organizers leave one of our parks trashed, they violate that trust.”
The department began the designation process in the spring of 2013 in an effort to ensure that the City’s parkland is protected from future development and real estate transactions. Through this process, Denver Parks and Recreation is taking steps to officially designate all applicable park land and open space around the city through city ordinance. Once a park has been dedicated, it can only be used as a park and that cannot be changed without approval by Denver’s voters.
