FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Colette Carey
EJ Reilly & Associates
SAVE OPEN SPACE DENVER FILES LAWSUIT OVER THE PARK HILL GOLF COURSE LAND CONSERVATION EASEMENT
A coalition of concerned citizens from every City Council District galvanize in the
fight to save Denver’s precious and ever-shrinking green space
DENVER (June 23, 2021) In a new and critical development regarding the Park Hill Golf Course land, Save Open Space Denver (SOS), along with plaintiffs from each City Council District – today filed a Complaint in Denver District Court seeking a court order regarding the City-owned 2019 conservation easement that preserves the Park Hill Golf Course land for open space and recreational conservation purposes – preventing development on that land. The Complaint claims are based on the Colorado conservation easement statute that prevents termination, release, extinguishment, or abandonment of a conservation easement without a court order that (based on changes on or surrounding protected land) it has become impossible to continue fulfilling an easement’s conservation purposes.
SOS and the other citizen plaintiffs seek a court order stating that the City is violating the Colorado conservation easement statute by expending significant taxpayer-funded, government resources to engage in an expensive planning and development process without first securing a statutorily mandated court order allowing termination, release, extinguishment or abandonment the 2019 conservation easement. The plaintiffs also seek a court order requiring the City to cease and desist from further actions and expenditures inconsistent with the open space and recreational conservation purposes of the 2019 conservation easement until the City might secure such a court order regarding that easement.
“What this boils down to is the simple fight over green space versus concrete, and we have citizens from all walks of life who put their names on this lawsuit, ” said Penfield Tate, one of the plaintiffs named in the complaint, “The City is wastefully spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on a major planning and development process for land that cannot be developed without a court order under Colorado law. Since the City refuses to address the Colorado conservation easement statute mandate, we’re seeking a court order that it must do so, now.”
The complaint also alleges that the City’s planning and development process “is effectively a real estate development joint venture project between the City and Westside Investment Partners.” To support this, the plaintiffs cite an internal December 2019 email from the Executive Director of the Planning and Development Department, Laura Aldrete, in which she refers to the developer (Westside) as the City’s “client.” Another allegation cites an admission by Ms. Aldrete at a January 2021 City Council Budget and Policy Committee meeting that her department’s planning and development process for the Park Hill Golf Course land is “market driven by a developer.”
A full copy of the filed complaint can be found at the following link:
The plaintiffs are as follows, listed by Denver City Council District:
| District One | Rafael Espinoza |
| District Two | Xochitl Gaytan |
| District Three | Jason Paul McGlaughlin |
| District Four | Anthony W. Pigford |
| District Five | Laurie B. Bogue |
| District Six | Joan Fitz-Gerald |
| District Seven | Anne McGihon |
| District Eight | Phebe Lassiter, Nancy Young, Penfield Tate |
| District Nine | Jeff “Brother Jeff” Fard, Yadira Sanchez, Wellington Webb |
| District Ten | Regina Jackson |
| District Eleven | Gabriel Lindsay |
About SOS Denver
Save Open Space Denver (“SOS Denver”) is a grassroots community group focused on the future of the Park Hill Golf Course land. We are dedicated both to the preservation of the beautiful 155-acre open space and to the eventual acquisition of the land by the City to create a fabulous park for all.
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I support leaving the City’s former golf course as open space. Denver has had ample opportunity to name other spaces as saved for affordable housing. Fewer opportunities exist for acquiring open space in the city.