Denver assembles City Park Golf Course redesign team

A man with glasses and a beard smiling.


By Joseph Rios

The Denverite June 26, 2016

[dropshadowbox align=”none” effect=”raised” width=”auto” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” inside_shadow=”false” outside_shadow=”false” ]Original Article Appears Here[/dropshadowbox]

The city of Denver is pushing hard for controversial renovations to Denver’s City Park Golf Course. This week the team who will be responsible for the redesign and construction of the course presented to City Council members their vision of what the golf course could become.

Contracts with Parsons transportation group, Flatiron Construction Inc. and Saunders Construction for design and construction of the City Park Golf Course improvement project were all advanced Tuesday by Land Use, Transportation & Infrastructure Committee members, despite two outstanding lawsuits related to the project.

Meet the team responsible for the City Park Golf Course:

The City Park Golf Course redesign team’s lineup includes the city and county of Denver, Saunders Construction with Aspen Corporation, clubhouse architect Johnson Nathan Strohe and golf course architect and designer iConGolf Studio. While iConGolf Studio designs the course it will receive advice from champion golfer Hale Irwin.

Irwin is known for leaving a legacy on the PGA Tour. He won three U.S. Open titles and the 1979 World Cup Championship. Todd Schoeder, chief design officer of iConGolf Studio, expressed his excitement to collaborate with Irwin.

“He is going to be very engaged throughout the process. He will be engaged in the layout, the strategy of the golf course, the feature construction, what it is going to look like, how it is going to play,†Schoeder said.

“I bring a vision of what (the average) player, I think, enjoys,†Irwin said. “Whether that be a public player, private player, it doesn’t matter. You still have to grab a golf club and hit the golf ball.â€

iCon Golf Studio has worked with Irwin’s Hale Irwin Golf Design before. The two companies have completed and renovated golf courses in Washington, Maryland and other places.

What will City Park Golf Course look like?

Denver has four things it wants to accomplish with a redesign of City Park Golf Course: to build a stormwater detention system that blends and integrates into the design of the course, to remain sensitive to historical character of the property, to serve the entire community and surrounding neighborhood and to build a high quality Parkland style golf course for all skill levels.

The most important new feature — and the most controversial — is the stormwater detention.

“We know that while on the surface this is a drainage project, it is much more than that. It is about preserving the legacy of City Park and making sure that that legacy continues on after the project is done. When we’re done, no one will know it’s a drainage project,†said Leslie Fangman from Saunders Construction.

Denver officials said City Park Golf Course will include facilities for the First Tee youth golf program, extra course yardage, an 18-hole Parkland style course with par 71 and a new, relocated club house.

The clubhouse will feature rooms for community meetings, and the city wants to make it a community asset. It will also come with a distinct view of the skyline.

“There is no backdrop like that anywhere, and our challenge will be to make that golf course equally beautiful,†Irwin said.

This, of course, has seen backlash from people in Denver.

CDOT is moving forward with plans to expand and sink I-70, a project that has been some 14 years in the making. However, the highway will be in the way of water that is trying to reach the South Platte River. Therefore, the city and CDOT have to do something about the water.

Denver says the flood control project meets longstanding city needs, and it just made sense to do a project that would also meet CDOT’s needs. One lawsuit, set to go to trial in August, alleges detention is an improper use of parkland under the city charter, while a more recent federal lawsuit claims that the flood control project did not get proper consideration in the environmental impact statement for the highway project.

Councilman Rafael Espinoza has been vocal about his concerns about the project.

“This is a colossal misuse of hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer’s money that could be addressing a whole bunch of stormwater needs citywide,†Espinoza said in an interview. “While I think there is a nice and beautiful and more playable way of doing what we’re doing today, yes, I don’t object to the concept.â€

That is, using the golf course for detention might be OK — just not like this.

“I do object to the way we’re using city funds and creating projects that aren’t necessary and building projects that aren’t necessary for this city, but are necessary for the interstate and confusing the two,†Espinoza said.

There are also questions as to whether the City Park Golf Course renovations will even see the light of day with multiple lawsuits against the project. Espinoza questioned how much the design process is costing the city for a project that could be halted by the court.

Attorneys for the city said that they are confident the project will be approved by the court.

[dropshadowbox align=”none” effect=”raised” width=”auto” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” inside_shadow=”false” outside_shadow=”false” ]Original Article Appears Here[/dropshadowbox]

Mayor Hancock Honors the Denver Press Club

A man in a suit and tie speaking at a podium.


A green sign with the words join cpfaCity Park Friends and Neighbors (CPFAN) applauds Mayor Hancock for honoring the Denver Press Cl ub upon its placement on the U.S. National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places with a plaque and celebration on August 2, 2017.  The National Register exists to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.  Listing the Denver Press Club on the National Register implies a commitment by the city to honor the national significance for which it has been recognized and to insure that it continues to be preserved intact for future generations by following National Park Service preservation standards and guidelines.
City Park Golf Course has also been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1986, at which time the City and County of Denver made a commitment to preserve and protect its natural and historic resource values, just as it does today for the Denver Press Club. City Park Golf Course, a 104 year old treasure of our city, was recognized on the National Register for its 1913 design by the best landscape architects of their time, the Olmsted Brothers and Tom Bendelow.  It deserves the same attention, care and respect as the Denver Press Club.
What does it say about our city and the value of its commitments when in one breath our mayor can pledge long term stewardship of the Denver Press Club building and in the next  sacrifice City Park Golf Course to redevelopment for drainage?  City Park Friends and Neighbors believe Denver can do better and we urge the Hancock Administration to meet the commitment it made to preserve and protect City Park Golf Course.

Resolution Regarding Overland Park Golf Course

A sign for the overland park golf course


Whereas, Overland Park Golf Course, designated in 1956, is an important part of Denver’s park system, providing affordable and accessible golf to Denver’s citizens continuously since its founding in 1895;

and Whereas, the Hancock Administration proposes to lease Overland Park Golf Course to a commercial promoter for the next five years to hold a music festival that will close the golf course for five weeks during prime golf season every summer;
and Whereas, in 2010 Denver established a policy to govern use of public parks for Admission-based Events, resulting from a collaboration that included input from Denver residents, neighborhood groups and city agencies, which policy the Denver City Attorney reviewed and signed;
and Whereas, the Overland Park Golf Course Festival contract under consideration by City Council greatly exceeds the limits established by the Admission-Based Event (ABE) policy and puts an ABE in a place never contemplated for such activity:
The ABE policy explicitly identifies parks where Admission-based Events are allowed.  Overland Pond Park is not one of the parks where Admission-based events are allowed.  And this kind of Admission-based event was not even contemplated at Overland Park Golf Course, or any golf course, since golf courses are 100% dedicated to golf and require specialized turf maintenance.
The ABE policy limits closure to the general public to 4 days, including set up and tear down, and it allows only 20% of the grounds to be closed to the public.  The proposed festival contract will close Overland Golf Course entirely for 5 weeks during prime golf season every year for 5 years.
The ABE policy limits the maximum attendance of Admission-based events to 7500 persons.  The proposed contract anticipates 20,000 – 40,000 attendees every day for 3 days each summer for 5 years.
 

and Whereas, the proposed Overland Park Golf Course Festival contract, if approved, will render the Admission-based Event Policy meaningless and erode trust both in public process and between the citizens of Denver and the Hancock Administration.

Therefore, City Park Friends and Neighbors resolve:

We urge City Council to comply with the provisions of the Admission-based Event policy and reject the proposal to commit to staging a multi-day music festival in Overland Park Golf Course for the next five years.
We encourage the Hancock Administration to work with the commercial promoter to find a suitable location for their multi-day, multi-year festival in an appropriate venue in the Denver area, not in a public park.
We propose City Council and the Hancock Administration initiate a public process to develop a Denver Festival Park and Event Center to mount commercial music festivals and similar events for the Denver community.

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