Park Hill Golf Course will remain a golf course: Denver voters say "NO" on 2O

When it comes to removing the conservation easement on the Park Hill Golf Course, it's a "No" again. 

If Referred Question 2O would have passed Tuesday night, it would have removed the conservation easement and cleared the way for new development, but that question failed. This is the second time Denver voters blocked the development.

Bonita Johnson is happy that Referred Question 2O failed in Tuesday night's election.

"I'm overly excited. Relieved," Johnson expressed.

She lives in Park Hill and likes to use the 155 acres that used to be the Park Hill Golf Course as a place to walk.  

She says when she heard the developers that own the land were planning to build retail and housing, she didn't like the idea. 

"They told me what they were going to do and I saw what they were going to do and I'm like, "Oh my goodness,'" Johnson said.

Her family has lived in the Park Hill Neighborhood for many years and while she recognizes the need for more affordable housing, she distrusts that the developer will live up to their word. 

"We have to question what they mean by affordable," Johnson said.

Abdur-Rahim Ali is the Imam of the Northeast Denver Islamic Center located one block away from the former golf course. He feels he was let down by Denver voters.

"I'm disappointed. We had a very good contract," Ali said.

He says he's been working with the developer to make sure any use of the land would give neighbors things they want, but don't have. 

"And the overwhelming majority of the people said we want mixed-use," Ali said.

He says the neighborhood needs more affordable housing and a grocery store. It became a food desert when the Holly Shopping Center was burned down by gang members in 2008. 

He says the plan promised would have given them both housing and the possibility of a new supermarket plus a 100-acre park. 

Now that plan is no more and thanks to the easement the only thing that can inhabit the space is a golf course.

"Now you get the golf course, but what do you need with two golf courses within walking distance of each other when housing is a crisis?" Ali asked. 

He wishes people in Park Hill would have decided the fate of the space instead of the entire city and thinks it's highly unusual that people not directly impacted by the decision got to weigh in.

"The people in Cherry Creek wouldn't have in their wildest imagination have the whole city vote on what's going to be happening in Cherry Creek," he said.

Bonita says despite the plan proposed by the developer, she thinks this outcome will be the best thing for Park Hill in the future. 

"One man's dream and maybe another man's nightmare," she said.