A new urban trail that’s taking firmer shape in Denver — at least on drawing boards — would snake through several downtown neighborhoods for more than five miles, serving as a linear park as much as a way to get around.
After years of talking about the 5280 Trail, city officials and private boosters who see the potential to strengthen neighborhoods said Tuesday that they’re ready to launch into formal design work for the first section. It could break ground along a small stretch of 21st Street in the next two years or so, and the city has committed $850,000 to get the ball rolling on designs.
As for the rest of the trail, it’s likely that construction will be done in phases over the next decade, following a route that’s mostly along secondary streets.
That means there is a lot of work to do — and potentially tens of millions of dollars to cobble together to make the 5280 Trail a reality. One advocate predicted a need for “significant” contributions from private donors.
But input gleaned by the Downtown Denver Partnership in neighborhood meetings and from public comments has raised expectations, as have examples of urban trails installed elsewhere in the last decade, including in New York City, Atlanta and Indianapolis. Denver’s official city plans for downtown in recent years voiced strong support for the idea of an urban trail, and the parks department has drawn lessons from experiments with new types of street parks.
“This trail will connect people to their neighborhoods, get people to their jobs and (get them around) downtown in exciting ways,” said Trini Rodriguez, a financial services executive who serves as the partnership’s board chair. He spoke during a press event Tuesday at Gates Corp. headquarters downtown.
“This is what everybody wants — it’s why people are moving back into downtowns,” added Amanda Hardin, who leads the La Alma-Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association. “We don’t want to be slaves to our cars. … We want to go on foot, we want to go on bike, we want to go on scooters, and this is a beautiful opportunity to create that safe space for that to happen. It’s a wonderful, wonderful project, and our neighborhood is so excited to have this coming through our community.”
The 5280 Trail — formerly called the 5280 Loop — is named after the Mile High City’s elevation. And plans call for a length that would roughly match it, at about 5.3 miles, drawing space from streets or sidewalks.
The first segment is set to travel along 21st from Coors Field to Benedict Fountain Park, and from there the conceptual route heads south on Sherman Street, going around the State Capitol; traverses the Golden Triangle neighborhood and crosses the Art District on Santa Fe; and heads north through the Auraria Campus before crossing Speer Boulevard and Cherry Creek into Lower Downtown, where it follows Wynkoop Street past Union Station, returning to the ballpark.
Planners behind the 5280 Trail say it’s not intended to cater to the high-speed bicycle commuters who use Denver’s growing network of on-street bike lanes.
City Councilman Chris Hinds, who represents Capitol Hill, predicted the trail would encourage walking and draw more high-rise residents to linger at street level. He also said the off-street trail would “engage a whole new group of people that want to bike but don’t feel safe doing it today.”
Looking at other cities’ urban trails
If other cities’ experiences are a guide, pulling together funding will take private as well as public commitments. A potential quiver in Denver’s back pocket is the new voter-approved sales tax that’s raising $41 million a year for the parks system.
The 5280 Trail is Denver’s answer to New York’s popular High Line, a park installed atop an abandoned elevated rail line five years ago in Manhattan, and the Beltline in Atlanta, which so far has built five trail segments along a former urban rail corridor.
But the better model is Indianapolis.
Randy Thelen, the Downtown Denver Partnership’s vice senior vice president of economic development, said the 5280 Trail’s conceptual sketches borrow heavily from the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, completed in 2013. That trail works its way through downtown Indy and surrounding neighborhoods along 8 miles of connected trails, with most sections offset from streets and even sidewalks.
The trail features decorative pavers, landscaping, trees, public art and rain gardens to capture runoff, and it’s become popular with cyclists, runners and pedestrians, drawing residents and tourists alike.
It took Indianapolis six years to build the Cultural Trail in phases, after a decade-plus of planning and fundraising. The project cost $63 million, starting with private fundraising that chipped in $27.5 million. The plan was lifted to the finish line by $35.5 million in federal transportation grants awarded during the Great Recession.
By connecting downtown to neighborhoods that were going through the process of revitalization, the trail sparked a surge of redevelopment. An Indiana University study in 2015 said properties near the trail had increased in value by $1 billion, though the trail wasn’t the only factor.
“I worked for the mayor’s office at the time, and I significantly underestimated its impact on new, transformative development,” said Michael Huber, president and CEO of the Indy Chamber, in an email to The Denver Post. “Within a few years of completion, the Cultural Trail had catalyzed hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment, including mixed-use and mixed-income housing; new hotels, restaurants and music venues; and stronger connectivity to historic neighborhoods.”
Navigating gentrification fears
The prospect of more growth might temper excitement in some close-in Denver neighborhoods such as Five Points that have experienced fast gentrification, though the city’s boom over the last decade has far outpaced growth in Indianapolis.
Thelen said planners heard such concerns during meetings over the last couple years and took them into consideration as they decided on the route. The trail would travel through a mix of established neighborhoods as well as the Auraria Campus. But in Arapahoe Square along 21st Street, it could aid redevelopment prospects in that lagging stretch.
The idea in plan drafts is to tailor each section to its neighborhood, he said.
Denver Public Works says its contribution on 21st will cover early design work for most of that 11-block section, along with completed designs for a shorter-term demonstration project on a smaller segment that, once finished, would give the public a close-up view of the trail’s potential.
