A new, roughly 2 acre park will open in the Windsor neighborhood in east Denver after the City Council this week approved the $750,000 acquisition of vacant land.
The future park, at the corner of Mississippi Avenue and Dayton Street, will be purchased almost entirely with funds from the 2018 voter-approved Parks Legacy Fund, a 0.25% sales tax.
“I want to point out this resolution because it is so joyful,” said Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer, who represents the Windsor neighborhood, during Monday’s meeting before approval. “This is one of the promises that we made the community and the voters who approved the Parks Legacy Fund.”
Acquiring the land will help the city meet its goal of ensuring all neighborhoods are within a 10-minute walk or roll to a park. The neighborhood currently only has one city-run park, the Ben Bezoff Park.
The new one is expected to serve 1,700 households, according to a memo from the city’s department of finance.
Beyond the purchase price, the city will use another $200,000 for “vision planning, restoration, or removal of existing trees, due diligence, and transactional costs,” according to the memo. The funding will come largely from the Parks Legacy Fund, with $75,000 coming from the Denver Park Trust, a nonprofit fundraising organization benefitting Denver Parks and Recreation.
The tax created by the Parks Legacy Fund amounts to an extra 2.5 cents on a $10 purchase. As of 2024, the tax was bringing in more than $45 million per year. It also is helping develop parks in Globeville, Green Valley Ranch, Sun Valley, Westwood and University Hills. A focus of the fund is to create more equitable park distribution across the city.
“This is really, really exciting for the residents of District 5,” Sawyer said.
Denver will purchase the land that will eventually become a park, at 1060 S. Emporia St., from High Line Swim Club.
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