The Colorado Court of Appeals dealt parks advocates another defeat Thursday in their long-running attempt to overturn .
A panel ruled 3-0 in the city’s favor, rejecting the contention that the transfer of land at Hampden Heights Open Space to Denver Public Schools should have been subject to a citywide vote. The city charter requires that step to sell any land that had been designated as a park, whether done informally before 1955 or explicitly by ordinance after that.
All city actions cited by the group Friends of Denver Parks and its attorney fell short of designating the site as a park, Judge Henry E. Nieto wrote for the panel.
DPS’s new Joe Shoemaker School opened last month on the 11.5-acre parcel on Havana Street. It and conservationist.
The Denver City Council approved the land swap two years ago. In return, DPS gave the city an administration building in central Denver that soon will become a resource center for victims of domestic violence.
Plaintiffs, looking to prevent similar land transfers, pressed to return the open space to city ownership — even if that wouldn’t happen for decades — once the new school outlives its usefulness.
The parks advocates will consider seeking review by the Colorado Supreme Court, attorney John Case said. The city “represented to the public for at least 40 years that this was a park,” he said, “and the courts won’t hold them to it.”
