EMERGENCY! CPGC TREES MARKED FOR DESTRUCTION

A tree with a yellow warning sign on it.


CITY TO HOLD PUBLIC MEETING TONIGHT AND SATURDAY! COME

 

Oct 12, 2017 — Trees in City Park Golf Course from Colorado Blvd. to York St. are banded with yellow tape, marked for imminent death ( within the next few days)
You can help to stop this destruction. The city is holding public meeting tonight, Thursday, and Saturday morning to hear what YOU have to say about their plans to destroy historic City Park Golf Course and hundreds of trees. PLEASE SHOW UP. BE VOCAL. RALLY YOUR FRIENDS. DON”T BE SILENCED.

CLICK HERE FOR MEETING DETAILS:
http://mailchi.mp/20de8794e99b/emergency-cpgc-trees-marked-for-destruction-city-to-hold-public-meeting-tonight-and-saturday-come

Historic Denver Feedback on Cultural Landscape Report for City Park Golf Course

A lake with trees in the background and a grassy area.


[dropshadowbox align=”none” effect=”raised” width=”auto” height=”” background_color=”#f1e2e2″ border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” inside_shadow=”false” outside_shadow=”false” ]Report Is Here[/dropshadowbox]

1)      The report generally provides a solid overview of the course and its development, and the photographs and maps are useful visual aids.  While the document would have been more helpful at an earlier stage, it should still be useful in informing design decisions.

2)      We concur with the proposed period of significance for the reasons documented in the CLR and because the proposal is reasonably consistent with the proposed period of significance for the remainder of City Park, which is currently undergoing a master planning process.  We also concur that the course currently exhibits good integrity.

3)      The underlying premise of the report seems to be that the Golf Course has changed overtime.  That is clearly true, however, the core foundational elements of the Course have not changed substantially (topography, views, spatial relationships, circulation patterns).  Additionally, the Course had taken on its current state, more or less, by the mid-1960s and so most of the changes to landscape style and vegetation should be considered contributing to the historic character as we now know it.  Efforts should therefore be made to preserve, honor or reinforce relationships and attributes that date to the period of significance.  This includes the foundational elements noted above, but also the key plantings and the planting patterns, that date to the period of significance.

4)      There remains some incomplete thinking related to the trees and defining their significance.  Emphasis has been placed on the age of trees alone- rather than on understanding which planting patterns have significance, even if they are less evident today.  While certainly preserving the legacy/champion trees is critical, understanding the patterns during the period of significance could guide the designers in choices about where to re-establish those patterns, what kinds of trees to plant, etc.

5)      Justification is made for moving the clubhouse based on previous conversations about moving it in the 1940s and 1990s, but preservation practice would say that simply because something was previously discussed or even designed, if it wasn’t built it’s not “historic,†so using those previous conversations as an argument to support the move doesn’t really work.  There should be further discussion of how the move affects other contributing features, and whether those attributes can be preserved even if the club house moves.

6)      The views are defined as significant both into and out of the course, so the idea that buildings need to be low, and not dominant, is very important not only to the views but also to the sense of vastness that is repeatedly noted as a significant characteristic.

 

logo for email signatureAnnie Robb Levinsky

Executive Director

Historic Denver, Inc 

1420 Ogden St.

Denver, CO 80218

303-534-5288 ext. 1

www.historicdenver.org

 

Are you a member?  Join today at www.historicdenver.org.

ANOTHER NAIL IN THE I 70/ PLATTE TO PARK HILL COFFIN?

A blue and red interstate sign with the words " ditch the ditch 7 0 ".


Contact: Aaron Goldhamer

Tel.: 303.534.0401

Email: agoldhamer@keatingwagner.com

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 Zeppelin Plaintiffs Move to Enjoin I-70 Widening Project

 Denver, CO

September 18, 2017

 

On Friday, a group of Denver citizens—including developer Kyle Zeppelin—filed a motion in Federal court to enjoin the Colorado Department of Transportation (“CDOTâ€) from proceeding with its controversial plan to expand I-70 through Denver.  If the motion is successful it could bring a halt to the highway project, which has been derided by critics as an expensive and backwards-thinking boondoggle that threatens the health of predominantly low-income and Latino neighborhoods in north Denver.

 CDOT and the Federal Highway Administration’s (“FHWAâ€) alleged failure to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPAâ€) is the basis for the sought injunction.  Namely, the plaintiffs assert that CDOT and the FHWA are proceeding with the I-70 project without two areas of required study: (1) a failure to study the effect on human health of the project in light of the disturbance of toxic materials present in the Superfund site where the project is located, and (2) a failure to study the environmental and other impacts of the City of Denver and CDOT’s joint proposed “Platte to Park Hill†drainage project, which the plaintiffs allege is designed to protect the proposed subgrade lowering of I-70.

 The EPA has determined that part of the I-70 construction area contains conditions that “present a threat to public health and environment[,]†and that “excavation of these metal contaminated soils pose the threat of additional releases of these hazardous substances to the environment.â€Â  Nevertheless, CDOT did not analyze how the disturbance or spread of these contaminants may actually impact human health and the environment before deciding to proceed with the I-70 project, the plaintiffs allege.

 The Platte to Park Hill project is the City of Denver and CDOT’s joint massive $300M drainage project planned for north Denver.  CDOT is paying up to $60M toward this project.  “Under NEPA, CDOT and the FHWA were required to study the Platte to Park Hill project, because it is connected to the I-70 project.  They did not do so, in violation of federal law,†said Aaron Goldhamer, an attorney at the law firm Keating Wagner Polidori Free, P.C., that is representing the plaintiffs. 

 Goldhamer also represented various Denver residents in a suit against the City of Denver that was tried to a state court judge in August.  That case alleged that the portion of the Platte to Park Hill project planned for City Park Golf Course—which is designated parkland—was unlawful under the Denver Charter because the project constituted highway construction and drainage support, which runs afoul of the Denver Charter’s restriction of parkland to “park purposes.â€Â  That case still awaits determination.

 Additional plaintiffs to the federal case include Brad Evans, Christine O’Connor, Kimberly Morse, Jacqueline Lansing, and Janet Feder.  Melissa Hailey of Keating Wagner and Jay Tuchton of the Tutchton Law Office also represent these plaintiffs.  “Melissa Hailey is really the brains behind this operation, and is pulling the laboring oar,†Goldhamer said of Hailey, a former WildEarth Guardians attorney.

 The plaintiffs expect that their requested injunction will be determined no later than early 2018, before CDOT is scheduled to begin construction.  CDOT and the FHWA will have an opportunity to respond to the plaintiffs’ motion, and an injunction hearing is possible.  If the injunction is granted, it would bode well for a final determination that CDOT would have to reissue an Environmental Impact Study before proceeding with the I-70 project, as “likelihood of success on the merits†is an important factor in obtaining injunctive relief.  Likewise, if the injunction is granted, CDOT may not be able to help pay for the Platte to Park Hill project.  If that happens, Goldhamer thinks “the City might scrap their Platte to Park Hill project.  After all, they did not have any plan for it in Denver’s 2014 Storm Drainage Master Plan, before CDOT apparently realized they needed to account for more drainage issues and talked Denver into helping them out.â€

 Goldhamer’s City Park Golf Course case uncovered a document that Denver had fought to keep secret: a 2014 Montclair Creek Drainage Feasibility Evaluation, which clarified the following in writing:

 CDOT’s Project Manager, Keith Stefanik[,] has confirmed from his management team that CDOT cannot include any of the Montclair Creek open channel projects [now known as Platte to Park Hill] in their design/build contract for the I-70 PCL project. To amend their Environmental Impact Study (EIS) to include an open channel option is such a large change in scope that they would have to start their NEPA EIS process essentially over again. It has taken them two years to get to the point of where they are ready to submit their supplemental package, and they are unwilling to jeopardize their progress on the EIS for the I-70 PCL.

 NEPA requirements will activate if we use federal funding. If any of the Montclair Creek projects have to undergo a NEPA process, we understand from CDOT’s NEPA Project Manager, Kirk Webb, that this process would take a minimum of 2 to 3 years. Based on the I-70 PCL schedule, these projects are not a viable option for the City and County of Denver to pursue. It is understood if we are able to secure non-Federal funding for these project [sic], then we would not have to undergo a NEPA process.

 In addition to the City Park Golf Course case, additional litigation concerning I-70—both in the District of Columbia and in Colorado Federal court—remains pending.  A case filed in Colorado by the Sierra Club and neighborhood groups has been consolidated with the Zeppelin plaintiffs’ matter for purposes of case management.

 The Zeppelin plaintiffs’ motion for the injunction is attached.  Additional exhibits and pleadings in the case are available from the Federal District Court for the District of Colorado or upon request to the contact listed above.

Aaron D. Goldhamer | Attorney at Law

Keating Wagner Polidori Free, P.C.

1290 Broadway, Suite 600

Denver, CO  80203

303.534.0401 Main

ATTACHMENT HERE

[pdf-embedder url=”https://dev.cpfan.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/motion.for_.stay_.pdf” title=”motion.for.stay”]

303.534.8333 Fax

www.keatingwagner.com

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