FEBRUARY 23, 2022
The Denver District Court recently determined that the Denver residents and SOS Denver did not have legal standing to bring the lawsuit under the Colorado conservation easement statute, yet more importantly, the court determined that the 2019 amendment to the conservation easement statute appears to “severely constrict the grounds upon which a conservation easement can be terminated, released, extinguished, or abandoned, and to create the requirement of a court order to that effect.”
This court has acknowledged what the city has not. This land, the former Park Hill Golf Course, is protected by a conservation easement that can only be lifted by a court order and then be developed only after a majority of the people of Denver vote to do so.
“While we are disappointed by Judge Buchanan’s decision, we are not going to be deterred in our fight to let the people decide what happens to the Park Hill Golf Course land – not a developer and not a city run by developers,” said Penfield Tate on behalf of Save Open Space Denver. “To be painted by the city as a group of people fighting to save a defunct golf course is just more of the same false rhetoric. We are fighting to preserve the land consistent with the open space and recreational conservation purposes of the conservation easement.”
This Administration has lost all credibility as it continues to do the bidding of developers, ignoring the will of the voters, excluding neighborhood voices critical of its actions, and inventing phantom support for its development desires. This past November, Denver voters chose to support open space and recreational activities versus turning the last contiguous open space in Denver into 155 acres of concrete, by nearly a 2 to 1 margin.
Those voices cannot and will not be ignored. SOS Denver will continue in its efforts to uphold the will of the voters by fighting for the land protected by the taxpayer-funded conservation easement for open space and recreational conservation purposes, not a golf course.
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