Herald
ENGLEWOOD 3.7.13
Englewood
March 8, 2013
75 cents
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourenglewoodnews.com
Arapahoe County, Colorado • Volume 93, Issue 3
Grant sought for park project
OVER THE TOP
Facilities planned for 3-acre space By Tom Munds
tmunds@ourcoloradonews.com
Thor, an Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office K-9 patrol dog, leaps over a tall obstacle to take down trainer Jimmy Vanhove on Feb. 27. The indoor three-day training exercise at Warriors Field House in Highlands Ranch honed the skills of police dogs, their trainers and training decoys. Photo by Courtney Kuhlen
Englewood City Council approved the submission of an application for a Great Outdoors Colorado grant that would help pay for construction of new facilities at Duncan Park. The planned facilities and equipment installation would cost about $1.2 million. The Feb. 19 approval allows the parks and recreation department to submit an application for a $350,000 state grant. If the application is approved, the city will provide about $392,000 in matching funds. The city matching funds are in the budget and will be made up of money from the program returning a share of the county’s open space tax to communities, and also from the Conservation Trust Fund, which Englewood receives from the Colorado Lottery. Duncan Park is a three-acre stretch of open land at 4800 S. Pennsylvania St. It is the only park in the southeastern quadrant of the city. “I am excited and I hope the grant is approved so the city can make the park improvements,” Shirley Wetzler, an area resident, said as she walked her dog in the park. “The park is important to our community. The city has been great and has kept the people who live in the area informed and involved in the process to develop plans for Duncan Park. Most of us are very pleased with the plan and look forward to the park project being completed.” Englewood School District bought about 3.3 acres of land in the early 1950s and built Duncan School at 4800 S. Pennsylvania St. Duncan continues on Page 5
Comprehensive plan on track to be updated Primary changes to 2000 document will be in wording, data By Tom Munds
tmunds@ourcoloradonews.com Englewood City Council gave consensus approval Feb. 25 to begin the process to update the city’s comprehensive plan. The comprehensive plan is a policy doc-
ument that guides future development of the city. It serves as a long-term vision for the city and covers a broad range of topics such as city services, transportation and the economy as well as all the city’s geographical areas. The process to update Englewood’s comprehensive plan began several months ago when Mayor Pro Tem Jim Woodward and Council Members Jill Wilson and Joe Jefferson volunteered to spend countless hours reading through the plan and developing recommendations for changes.
POSTAL ADDRESS
Printed on recycled newsprint. Please recycle this copy.
“Generally, the focuses of our recommendations are to update the wording, information and date in the plan,” Jefferson said at the Feb. 25 council study session. “We never intended to hash out minute details.” Woodward said a comprehensive plan is a long-term vision of what the city would like to become. “We know changes will happen throughout the city,” he said. “I can’t imagine Broadway will look as it does today 20 or 30 years from now.” Mayor Randy Penn said the committee did a lot of work and has submitted its recommendations. “Now, we need all council members to review and comment on the proposed changes,” he said. Woodward suggested council members make notes on the proposals that will be integrated into the final draft that will be used to update the comprehensive plan. The final recommendations will be
used to create a draft update of the comprehensive plan, which should take about two to three months. Then, it will take about two months for the proposed update to be reviewed by the city’s boards and commission. The result of those reviews will be used to create a revised draft that will be sent to the planning and zoning commission for review. The result of the commission review will be used to create revised draft three, which will be available as public hearings are held on the draft update of the comprehensive plan. From there, it will be considered for adoption by the city council. “The schedule is for us to have the updated plan approved by council by the end of the year,” Community Development Director Alan White said. “If the changes are wording and data, the process should move quickly, but the schedule could slow down if maps and graphs were part of the upgrades because those elements could generate more interest from residents.”