DENVER — Westside Investment Partners, the current owners of the Park Hill Golf Course, will look into including a “Topgolf-like facility” if voters reject proposed development plans, a spokesperson confirmed to Denver7.
Westside has said it wants to develop the 155-acre area in east Denver into housing, commercial space, and a park, which would require Denver voters to lift a conservation easement currently in place maintaining it for exclusively open space and a golf course.
“Denver has a housing crisis, not a golf crisis,” a Westside Investment Partners spokesperson told Denver7 in a statement. “Keeping this land restricted to a golf course is not what Westside wants for this community, and it is definitely not what Denver needs.
“If Denver votes to reject the parks and housing that a "yes" vote provides, Westside would have to consider every use allowable under the easement, including a Topgolf-like facility that supports an 18-hole golf course and driving range as explicitly referenced in the conservation easement.”
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Save Open Space Denver, a key group opposing Westside’s development plan, has been knocking on doors and placing signs throughout Denver urging voters to vote “No on 2O,” referring to the ballot question over the easement. Treasurer Harry Doby told Denver7 he views the comments over a potential TopGolf as a “threat” aimed to sway voters.
“If they can instill just that little seed of fear in the Denver voters that, ‘Oh my god, this is going to be this awful TopGolf thing that towers 160 feet with noise and music and, you know, just people, like a nonstop party. I guess I better give them what they want.’ And that’s not going to happen. It fools no one,” Doby said.
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Much like the broader debate over Park Hill, the two sides of the issue disagree whether TopGolf would be permissible under the conservation easement as it currently stands.
Westside Investment Partners argues it would be, pointing to language in the easement that dictates the land “shall be occupied, used, operated, and maintained as a regulation-length 18-hole” course that can also include “a driving range.” TopGolf operates as a large driving-range game with large lights and sounds.
Save Open Space Denver argues TopGolf would be a totally different ball game than the original Park Hill Golf Course, and therefore, not allowed under the easement. They plan to press on, urging voters to reject the development plan and instead keep the space open to become a large park in the years to come.
“Denver voters are smart enough to realize that once it’s gone, it’s gone forever,” Doby said. “We don’t need 10,000 people living in the park. We need them living around it.”
