Photo Credit: Rocky Mountain Photo
Over the last several decades, neighborhoods in north Denver have experienced numerous flooding events, causing damage to properties and infrastructure, due to an inadequate drainage system. These neighborhoods are located within the Montclair Basin, an approximately nine-square-mile area that lacks a clear path for water to drain into the South Platte River. In 2015, the city and county of Denver Parks and Recreation and Public Works found a solution, ultimately known as the Platte to Park Hill: Stormwater Systems program. While Platte to Park Hill was initiated as a storm-protection program, the city quickly realized an opportunity to revitalize park space and increase connectivity among neighborhoods.
Given the large size of the program and the need for a robust community-outreach plan, multiple agencies leveraged their resources. While city departments typically manage projects independently of one another, Platte to Park Hill required agencies to communicate, coordinate, and accommodate different perspectives and priorities. To guide all decision-making during the program, city teams established early goals of providing critical flood protection, improving water quality, increasing neighborhood connectivity, enhancing public spaces, and upgrading existing infrastructure with green elements.
The program is comprised of four separate projects, which upon completion, will create new detention areas at two local golf courses—city-owned City Park Golf Course and privately owned Park Hill Golf Course—a linear greenway, and open channel along 39th Avenue, and an enlarged outfall that feeds into the South Platte River at Globeville Landing Park. The final stop for water is the Montclair Basin. Though these projects could have been completed separately to solve drainage issues, a combined effort creates a more capable system that also serves as an amenity for the surrounding neighborhoods.