The former Park Hill Golf Course would stay undeveloped for now, if margins as of early returns in the 2O ballot measure hold steady.
Early and unofficial results showed voters rejecting a ballot measure to lift a conservation easement on the property by a margin of more than 20 percentage points.
The "no" vote at the 11:30 p.m. Tuesday update led, 60.2% to 39.8%, in the third batch of votes released, with 110,000 ballots counted.
The measure's proponents conceded the race shortly before 11 p.m.
"The Park Hill Golf Course will forever be a case study in missed opportunities," the "yes" campaign said. "With historically low turnout, Denver has rejected its single best opportunity to build new affordable housing and create new public parks. Thousands of Denverites who urgently need more affordable housing are now at even greater risk of displacement."
Question 2O asked voters whether residents want to remove a conservation easement on the 155-acre property. Voting “yes” would clear the way for sweeping redevelopment of the site, while voting “no” would keep the golf course as is.
Before polls closed, a spokesperson for the "yes" campaign said in a statement that voter data showed turnout skewed toward voters aged 55 and older.
"This election will depend entirely on whether the people most impacted by Denver's housing crisis — renters, working parents, teachers, and first responders — use their vote today to help solve it," spokesman Bill Rigler said.
"One thing we know for certain right now" is that voters above the age of 65 are "in control over the future direction" of Denver, he added. "Young voters stayed home."
The "Yes on 2O" campaign had waited for tens of thousands of ballots to be counted. In the last seven election cycles, more than 50% of ballots were turned in within the 36 hours before polls closed, Rigler said. Those voters can often be people such as working parents, dashing off to vote in-between the end of the work day and polls closing.
"Those are our people," Rigler said.
Councilwoman Robin Kniech tweeted: "The agreement requires a rezoning back to Open Space OS-B if ballot measure failures(sic) w/in 90 days."
If the ballot issue ultimately fails, Rigler said the property owners are not prepared to discuss future or immediate plans for the site. But they are bound by the conservation easement to return the property to function as an 18-hole golf course and driving range, although uses, such as a Top Golf, are also permitted, he said.
The property is private, Rigler said, and ,although ownership opened it up during the COVID-19 pandemic, he added that the site "will be fenced back up and all public access will be shut down" if 2O fails.
Opponents of 2O were not ready to comment as of the first two ballot drops, but were "cautiously optimistic," a spokesperson for the "No on 2O" campaign said. They did not return a voicemail after the 10 p.m. ballot drop.
Controversy shrouded the issue after the landowner submitted a proposal to turn the former golf course into affordable housing, market-rate housing, a grocery store and park space that drummed up pushback from Denverites who worried about losing open space in a fast-growing city.
The redevelopment plans spurred debates and rallies that turned out big Denver names, such as former mayor Wellington Webb, in opposition to the redevelopment proposal. The city council voted, 11-2, last year to put the issue up for a vote of the people.
Opponents have pushed for the site to be used as park space and a recreational enclave. The former golf course is located in a historically black community and was zoned as open space before the council’s vote. The current conservation easement requires an 18-hole golf course be the primary use of the site.
Although affordable housing is needed in Denver, such projects should be built near the property, not on it, Save Open Space Denver representative Woody Garnsey has said, one of the development’s opponents. Critics have also pushed back against developers’ stance that the choice is to either approve the ballot measure or keep the land a golf course forever.
Proponents of 2O offer a different vision.
Kenneth Ho of Westside Investment Partners, the site’s owner, has said his company’s plans for the property are rooted in diversity, equity and social justice. Redeveloping the site would bring opportunity to an area that has “suffered disinvestment for decades,” he said at a forum last year.
Ho has promised a “yes” vote on 2O means 100 acres of public parks and open space, a grocery store in an area considered a food desert, and affordable housing that will serve low-income communities.
The project prioritizes walkability, Ho said, while other supporters touted it as a way to curb displacement in a city as expensive as Denver. Among backers was Habitat for Humanity, the Butterfly Pavilion, Denver Streets Partnership and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.
Habitat for Humanity Metro Denver CEO Heather Lafferty said amid community debate that "Repurposing a defunct golf course into an actual community asset where people can afford to live should be everyone’s priority.”
Reporters Alex Edwards and Kyla Pearce contributed to this story.
