Developer Still Seeks Commercialization With Help Of Hancock Administration
by Charles Bonniwell
From Above: An aerial view of the entire 155-acre Park Hill Golf Course area under threat of commercialization from developer Westside Investment Partners and the Hancock Administration.
The voters appeared to overwhelmingly state that they wanted the 155-acre Park Hill Golf Course area to remain green space. By an almost 2-to-1 margin, voters approved Initiated Ordinance 301 which required citywide voter approval to build on the land. The initiative and the campaign were headed up by former mayoral candidate Penfield Tate III, who headed up Save Open Space Denver (“SOS Denver”), and former Denver mayor and Park Hill resident Wellington Webb. The slogan of the campaign was “Green over Concrete.”
Tate indicated that the message hit home for residents who have seen massive new density across Denver, supported with the direct and indirect support of Denver Mayor Michael Hancock. The developer, Westside Investment Partners (“Westside”) bought the property in 2019 for $24 million from Clayton Early Learning. Westside put up its own Initiative 302 which was almost exactly the same as 301 but exempted golf courses from the definition of a conservative easement. The net effect of 301 and 302 passing would allow the developer to proceed with development of Park Hill, notwithstanding the passage of 301. Tate indicated that he was pleased that the voters were not fooled by Westside’s tricky, similar sounding Initiative.
Visioning Process
Still Leading: Former Denver mayor Wellington Webb, a Park Hill resident, has help to lead the fight to stop the commercialization of the Park Hill Golf Course area.
Still Under Threat: Notwithstanding an overwhelming 2-to-1 vote in Ballot Initiative 301 and 302 to require a city-wide vote before lifting a conservation easement on the 155 acre Park Hill Golf Course, developer Westside Investment Partners with the strong backing of the Hancock Administration and taxpayer dollars is moving full steam ahead to try to commercialize the green space.
The battle continues with Hancock and Westside trying to figure out how to outmaneuver Webb and Tate and the citizens who want more and not less open space. Some say the Hancock Administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to help Westside. In what critics contend was a contrived lawsuit, Westside sued the city over a drainage easement on the land. In settlement, the city provided an enormous war chest of $6 million for Westside to fight citizen groups like SOS Denver. That agreement gives Westside a three-year window for a public engagement process (i.e., a public relations campaign).
The city set up an expensive Denver taxpayer funded “Park Hill Golf Course Area Visioning Process” which basically plans the commercial development on behalf of Westside with a 27-member Park Hill Steering Committee. It appears that the Steering Committee is largely composed of apparently pro-development members.
Another Lawsuit
SOS Denver’s response was to file a lawsuit against Mayor Hancock and the City and County of Denver in June 2021 that alleges the public planning process is illegal until the conservation easement is lifted.
“The city has to follow the law. That’s the whole point of our lawsuit,” declared Tate. He stated the entire public engagement process was a sham and a waste of taxpayer dollars. The city issued a statement that the Park Hill planning process was a very standard one and that gathering community input for future use did not in any way interfere with the conservation easement.
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly: Attorney and former mayoral candidate Penfield Tate Hill III, below, headed up Save Open Space Denver and helped win Ballot Initiative 301 and defeat Ballot Initiative 302 proposed by Westside Investment Partners (“Westside”) whose public face is Kenneth Ho, above. Ho was supported by Park Hill Steering Committee member Pastor Del Phillips, right, who claimed green open space in Park Hill is somehow racist and who is considered by his critics to be little more than a shill for Westside.
Holleran Group’s (Westside’s partner) CEO & Managing Partner Norman Harris indicated that it was not slowing down due to the overwhelming vote of Denver’s citizens. With a massive fortune to be made if the conservation easement on Park Hill can be eliminated, Holleran proclaimed it to be a visioning process, in a story published by The Denverite:
“We are going to double down on our community outreach to assure that we are bringing the right folks to the table and truly achieve an equitable outcome,” Harris said. “We’re very confident that we are going to be successful, and we just really look forward to the opportunity to bring more people into the conversation.”
Park Hill Steering Committee head Pastor Del Phillips indicated that preventing the commercial development was racist in nature given the history of Park Hill. He stated at a rally in October:
“I think it is highly unusual how people say this is about saving green space… This is really about people who believe they have the right to choose where other folks want to live.”
Kenneth Ho of Westside did not see the 2-to-1 vote against its initiative as a loss for the commercial development of Park Hill but rather: “We understand that residents want to hear more details about what this can be.” He went on to declare: “I think what the initiative does is it now says we need to come up with a plan for the voters to vote on. I think the next step is to develop that and put some specifics around the plan.”
What’s Next
Pastor Del Phillips
Penfield Tate Hill III
The Steering Committee is expected to provide the city its recommendations by Thanksgiving in the form of a Vision Summary which is expected to be very pro developer and little more than a glossed over version of what Westside wants. It will be used to give pro developer recommendations to the Denver City Council by the Community Planning and Development department which is controlled by the Hancock Administration.
SOS Denver indicates it is ready for the fight first at the City Council level and if that fails on a second ballot measure now required by Initiative 301 to lift the conservation easement.
Wellington Webb declared: “For me, what’s next is to get reengaged with my Nuggets tickets. Then we go back and look at what are the areas for reconciliation to some degree.”