Creating Balance in Our Parks & Neighborhoods
From: Ramirez, Grace L. – Office of Special Events <Grace.Ramirez@denvergov.org>
Subject: Creating Balance in Our Parks & Neighborhoods
Date: Fri, Oct 30, 2015 5:05 pm
Dear Neighborhood Leaders, Residents, and Businesses,
Hello again! Many of you may have heard that the new Ofice of Special Events (OSE) is updating Denver’s procedures in regards to special events like races, walks, festivals and farmers markets that take place on city property. Like many other cities, Denver is experiencing a surge in special events. It’s been an exciting year. We’ve spent the past 10 months bringing Denver’s procedures up to industry standards by creating better internal and external communication mechanisms about special events; improving our processes; and providing better guidance to special event organizers so that we can ensure safe, compliant and successful events.
Denver prides itself on our it and healthy lifestyle and the hundreds of walks, races and runs we host on public property each year. Our mission is to continue to support special events held on Denver property; maintain the quality of our parks; as well as to support our residents’ need to hold family picnics in our parks, enjoy a quiet walk through our city streets and drive through our beautiful and historic neighborhoods.
With that in mind, we are ready to roll out the first of a series of updates for how Denver works with special events.
Notification of Special Events
The new procedures will focus on better community notification, mitigating negative impacts like trash, street closures and congestion, and creating better enforcement measures that are the result of the hundreds of Special Events held on public property each year.
In an effort to let you know what is happening in your neighborhood and when, all special events held on city property will be required to email notification to impacted Registered Neighborhood Organizations (RNOs) several times before the event and City Council ofices. The larger events will be required to create a customized notification plan in partnership with our ofice. This will be implemented in 2016.
Check out our website for more information on notification, an event calendar, and other special event procedures!
Parks Now Have Rest Periods from Events
Denver’s beautiful parks are the focus of the recreational and active lifestyle we cherish in our city. In order to help protect the quality of the park, and maintain balance between recreational use and as a venue for Special Events, Denver Parks and Recreation (DPR) is initiating a one-year rest period pilot program in 2016.
The pilot program will only be implemented in seven of the busiest regional parks from April through October 2016. The parks included are Civic, Confluence, City, Stapleton Central, Sloan’s Lake, Washington and Cheesman parks.
The number of rest period days were established by the type of park and vary from 2 to 4 single weekend days per month. Also taken into consideration were maintenance requirements including protecting the turf, major holiday weekends, weekends before and after large events, and staffing needs.
Please note that this is not a ban on new special events in our parks. This is a pilot program for 2016 to help DPR better manage the park’s natural resources and achieve balance between passive park use and programmed activities in and around these specific parks. We are encouraging input from parks stakeholders, the public, and event planners, for consideration throughout the season and will engage with the community in a public meeting next year concerning new rules and regulations. For more info on DPR permits please visit the website here.
Pocketgov.com: Making City Living a Whole Lot Easier
Keep up on Special Events taking place in your park or neighborhood by visiting our interactive events map on Pocketgov.com, Denver’s online resource app. Or you can check out our online special events calendar!
We want to hear from you! Please let us know if you have any feedback about events in your
neighborhood by giving us a call at 720.913.1507, shooting over an email or through our online feedback button.
Warm regards,
Grace López Ramírez | Community Affairs Liaison
Office of Special Events (OSE) | City and County of Denver
720.913.1501 OSE Office | 720.913.1517 Direct | 303.877.8173 Cell
Grace.Ramirez@denvergov.org
