DENVER — Community members and an elected official in Denver’s Green Valley Ranch neighborhood are asking why a parks and recreation maintenance facility is receiving less funding than another facility planned for a different neighborhood.
In 2021, Denver voters passed the RISE Denver Bond which provided funding for two maintenance facilities, one for downtown Denver and one for Green Valley Ranch.
“You're talking about a facility that was promised to us through the RISE Bond at $7 million and we get stuck with one that's about $2 million,” Marcus Weaver, president of the neighborhood’s registered organization, said earlier this week.
Denver7’s Micah Smith took Weaver’s concerns to City Councilwoman Stacie Gilmore.
Gilmore said she’s spent months looking into the issue.
“This project and another maintenance shop were referred to the Denver voters during the 2021 RISE Bond. They were supposed to be equal in scope. Each was supposed to be $7.9 million, one in District 1, downtown, and one in District 11,” Gilmore said. “Now, they're going to build a $13.3 million maintenance shop closer to downtown, and they're trying to stick us with a $2.5 million metal tuff shed.
- Denver7 | Your Voice went to Green Valley Ranch to hear directly from residents about what concerns them most. Watch our report in the video player below:
Gilmore shared city documents that show the original budget for each project was $7.9 million. But Gilmore said Denver’s Parks and Recreation Department changed the budget.
“About a year ago, when Denver Parks and Rec came to me and proposed this model, and I went back and looked at the records and said, ‘wait a minute, you're not giving us our full investment that the voters voted on, and they have tried to spin it ever since then,’” Gilmore said.
Gilmore said after several requests to the department for schematics, she submitted an open records request and received the maintenance facilities plans.
Denver7 reached out to the Denver Parks and Recreation Department to ask about funding for both facilities. In a statement, a spokesperson said:
Our current Park Ave. location is technically a DPD facility and we have been sharing the space, so this is why the new NW Headquarters is needed to serve both Downtown and the NW.
The City is divided into 5 maintenance districts. Each district has multiple satellite shops and no more than 1 headquarters (geographically distributed). The NE District recently opened the shop on Smith Rd. & Quebec St., which serves as the district’s headquarters.
While voters approved a “bundle” of $15.8M to build two maintenance facilities, a set budget for each shop had not been finalized. It is not typical for all items in a “bundle” to be divided equally among all projects. As an example for the Elevate Bond, voters approved a “bundle” of $5M for Parks Irrigation Renovations. This funded 4 projects that ranged from upgrades of $385K at Pferdsteller Park in Council District 1, to $1.8M at Montbello Central Park in Council District 11.
“Everybody deserves to have safe parks, well maintained communities,” Gilmore said. “They don't think our safety matters as much as the other communities that are getting these amenities… I'm fighting for $5.4 million to come to our neighborhood.”
Gilmore said she just wants what was promised to her community and she’s glad community members are using their voices to bring attention to this issue.
