AURORA | City officials plan to repurpose the former Centre Hills golf course to include an 18-hole disc golf course, an off-leash dog park, a children’s play area, and a connector trail to the High Line Canal trail. City council members expressed concern about the area’s potential appearance as well as how the changes would be paid for at a study session Nov. 18.
City councilwomen Debi Hunter Holen and Marsha Berzins opposed the plan on the grounds that it would make the area unsightly to neighbors and surrounding businesses.
“If it goes to seed and becomes natural, how natural is that?” Berzins asked.
Tracy Young, manager of the city’s Parks, Recreation and Open Space department, said the repurposed land would consist mostly of native grass with blue grass located at shelters and playgrounds.
“We have many acres of natural open space in the city. I think it’s a personal opinion. It will be a different kind of maintenance,” Young said.
The golf course, which closed in July after years of losing money, would have required a $400,000 water irrigation project to stay open, according to city staff.
Mayor Steve Hogan echoed the concerns of other council members when he asked how the repurposed land, located at 16300 E. CentreTech Parkway, would fit as a connector between the proposed Signature Park and Delaney Farms open space.
“Is this a holding pattern?” he asked. “We’re not sure what we want to do in-between, so we’ll let something happen to it.”
“We’ve set up expectations that are going to be hard to manage,” said councilwoman Molly Markert. “There’s not a dime in next year’s budgets. It’s all promises with no means of producing anything.”
A public hearing for the plan will be held on Dec. 4 at the city parks department office.
Later in the evening City Council gave unanimous initial approval to Park Lane Elementary School being able to submit an application to Great Outdoors Colorado for a grant of $100,000 that the school would use to renovate its south-side playground.
Park Lane is an Aurora Public School that shares space with a public park site.
The school was not awarded money when it applied for the grant in 2013, but was encouraged by city council members to reapply in 2014.
Council Members Berzin and Holen should look at some existing city parks and they would know what natural parks look like and the benefits they bring to a neighborhood. Parks like Jewell Wet Lands, Star K ranch, West Tollgate Creek Trail, Tollgate Creek Trail, the Plains Center, Pronghorn Preserve, and countless city parks that have access to Sandcreek trail ways, or Cherry Creek trails are but a few.
If they are concerned about natural parks drawing unwelcome guests like coyotes, skunks, raccoons, deer, waterfowl or snakes, they can relax, these critter along with others already roam the commons at the City building.
Perchance Council Member Berzin and and Council Member Holens idea of a city outing is a City dinner at the Summit. A different kind of animal haunts those environs.
I am very interested in this! I had no idea the golf course is closed, as I see golfers using it as I ride through on the Highline Canal Trail on my bike. I am all for turning this space into something that is useful to a larger segment of the surrounding population in the area. I’m most interested in the dog park segment proposed. As it is now, I have to drive several miles to allow my two dogs to “get their run in” at a dog park at Quincy Resevoir. We make the trip once, twice, sometimes three times a week. This adds to the amount of gas used and the miles on my van. A dog park at Centre Hills would significantly cut down on my travel in the city. And yes, I will be at the public hearing on December 4th.