The Park Hill community benefits far outweigh land values
Earlier this week, an editorial in this paper acknowledged that Denver would receive at least $ 65 million dollars in community benefits in exchange for lifting a $ 2 million conservation easement at the long- closed Park Hill Golf Course. In other words, Denver stands to gain a thirty- fold return on an expense made 25 years ago that no longer serves any purpose.
Profits — but not the people who actually live in the community — appear to be The Post’s only calculus on Park Hill. So here are some additional figures that The Post should have included in its consideration: In 2000, 70% of the community identified as Black, and the average home price was around $ 250,000. Today, Northeast Park Hill is 37% Black, and the average home price is over $ 650,000. And city- wide, there is a shortage of more than 50,000 affordable homes.
Ballot Measure 2O is — and should be — much bigger than delivering financial returns for Denver. Besides creating the city’s fourth- largest public park and urgently needed affordable housing, voters can unleash an economic and housing revival and trigger tens of millions of dollars in tangible community benefits to Northeast Park Hill.
We should know — we successfully negotiated the Park Hill Golf Course Community Benefits Agreement ( CBA).
Our singular intention was to protect and promote our community’s long- term interests, and it is publicly available.
In pursuing a CBA with the developer, our objectives were straightforward: we wanted a binding agreement, we wanted pathways for economic growth and new generational wealth, and yes, we wanted the ability to sue the developer in case any commitments weren’t met.
We launched a comprehensive community- wide visioning process to inform the negotiating team’s priorities. Ultimately, we worked to secure guaranteed rental and forsale affordable housing, rentfree land for a grocery store and field house, and funding for the 303 Artway Heritage Trail. And because we’ve all seen this happen elsewhere, we wanted protections in case the land is flipped or sold to another developer.
In January 2023, ten organizations comprising the Park Hill CBA Coalition and the landowner formalized the most far- reaching community agreement ever seen in Colorado. Outside of California, there are only a handful of CBAS in the country that have demonstrated this same level of community involvement, concrete commitments, and enforceability.
The CBA was made possible because we had a willing partner in Westside Investment Partners. Though it’s easy to paint developers with the same brush, Westside has consistently modeled the behavior that Denver should hold every developer to.
For example, when we listed a real grocery store as a level- one priority, Westside committed to donating land for up to ten years to attract a grocery store. Likewise, because public parks raise surrounding home values and property taxes, Westside agreed to create an innovative anti- displacement fund to offset rising property taxes within half a mile of the site.
By arguing that Denver should extract more financial concessions before approving redevelopment, opponents of any development at Park Hill shamelessly ignore the urgency of Denver’s housing crisis. So let’s play that scenario out: if voters reject 2O, all the commitments in the CBA would vanish. Hundreds, if not thousands, of our residents will continue to suffer from voluntary and involuntary displacement over the next decade. A closed green space would remain private, and the community would remain a food desert and economically barren. How’s that for a return on investment?
After decades of disinvestment, it’s time for Northeast Park Hill to prosper again. That can only happen with a “yes” vote on 2O.