Park Hill Park Is Almost a Year Old and Still Unbuilt. Here's the Calendar That Decides What Comes Next.

"Today has been years in the making," Mayor Mike Johnston said at the ribbon cutting for Park Hill Park on Oct. 28, 2025. "But the work is not finished."

Nearly a year later, the first part still holds and the second part is hard to miss. Denver7 reported in August 2026 that no construction had happened since the opening and that some walking paths were in disrepair. Neighbors were still using the land for jogging, biking and walking their dogs. Denver7 also called it the fourth-largest park in Denver. Its final shape is still open, and the first real public design conversation won't start until early 2027.

So the past eleven months weren't a stalled project. They were the gap between buying the land and designing the park. For anyone who lives nearby, the useful question is when that gap closes and what they can do before it does.

The Year in Dates

The timeline explains why the site at 4141 E. 35th Ave. still looks the way it does. On opening day, Johnston placed the park at East 35th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard and called it "a bit of a fixer-upper" in its current form.

1. 1930s to 2018. The land operated as a golf course until it closed in 2018. A conservation easement dating to 1997 limited it to golf course use.
2. 2023. Voters rejected Westside's plan to turn part of the parcel into housing and other uses.
3. January 2025. Johnston announced the city would take over the land through a land swap and turn it into a park. The opening was originally expected that summer.
4. Oct. 2, 2025. The swap took longer than planned. The city closed on the deal on this date.
5. Oct. 28, 2025. The park opened to the public with Councilmembers Darrell Watson and Shontel Lewis, Denver Parks and Recreation executive director Jolon Clark, and the mayor cutting the ribbon.
6. November 2025. Voters passed the Vibrant Denver bond package, which set aside $70 million for Park Hill Park improvements.
7. Jan. 22, 2026. The final vision framework was presented at an open house held at Smith Elementary School, not at the park.
8. The city's "June Project Update." Denver Parks and Recreation and the Vibrant Denver Bond Team said they had issued a Request for Qualifications to find the next design team and were reviewing proposals.
9. End of 2026. The department told Denver7 it plans to hire a design firm by year end.
10. First quarter of 2027. More community feedback sessions are planned "as part of the design process."

The city's project page still says the park opened in "summer of 2025." Summer was the target. The gates actually opened on Oct. 28, after the land deal closed. That puts the park's first anniversary at the end of this month.

What You Get When You Walk In Today

Park Hill Park is open from sunrise to sunset, seven days a week, for what the city calls passive recreation. That means the existing trails, natural scenery and wildlife viewing. Ahead of the opening, the Denver Post reported that use would be limited to activities like walking and jogging.

Much of what you see on a walk comes from how the city classified the land. Denver Parks and Recreation's plan is to manage the site as Open Space, which means "only landscape within 4 feet of the walkway will be mowed," along with weed control. The tall grass past that four-foot strip is by design. The same plan says fencing stays up until resources are in place to manage the park properly, with "key entryways" cut in for public access. For the short-term stage, it lists fixing broken walkways, pruning trees and managing overgrowth so people can enjoy the bird habitat and panoramic views.

The project page's intro paragraph lists "walking trails, native plant species, a mature canopy provided by hundreds of trees, a dog park and much more." Further down, the same page describes the dog park as something the department "will build." Here's how the page's own sections line up against the August 2026 reporting:

If you bring a dog, the city page doesn't yet describe a fenced off-leash area that has been built. Plan for the trails as they are.

The Middle Stage Hasn't Started

The city laid out three stages for the land: immediate short-term use, interim use, and long-term build-out. Nearly a year in, the park is still in the first stage. The interim stage is the low-cost one, with the dog park, disc golf, picnic tables and a walking trail, and it's the one people seem to expect most. According to the August reporting, it hasn't arrived.

The vision framework released early this year includes gardens, playgrounds and sports fields, plus irrigation designed to manage stormwater and prevent flooding. As for the bond money, Denver Parks and Recreation says the $70 million "would allow for improvements including establishment of basic park infrastructure (irrigation, landscape, walks, parking lots and drives) as well as park amenities."

The order of that list matters. Irrigation, walks, parking lots and drives come before the features people picture when they think of a finished park. Today, neither the city's visitor information nor the parkhillpark.org materials name which gates are open or where to park. Parking and drives are among the first things the department lists for that funding, so the quickest visible change may be at the entrances, not in the middle of the park.

The city page describes the next design step as a team of landscape architects working with the community "to create a final design at a much closer level of detail and specificity that will set the stage for the future park construction." The vision framework set the direction. The detailed design will decide where things actually go, and that work hasn't started.

Opinions about the pace vary. One neighbor told Denver7 in August that it would "take them a long time to finish this project, but it's going to be wonderful." Others said they're waiting to see follow-through before getting optimistic. Both views fit the same set of dates.

The One Thing on the October Calendar

Right now, parkhillpark.org says, "There are not any planned engagement events for Park Hill Park." We found no announcement of a first-anniversary event for Oct. 28. For now, the way to take part is hands-on.

The Park Hill Trash Bash runs Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, from 10 a.m. to noon. It's organized by the Denver Park Enhancement Project and listed on the city's Engage Denver volunteer portal. The listing says, "Help us remove trash monthly from Park Hill Park!" It rates the task as trash pickup at an "easy" difficulty level.

Greater Park Hill Community has scheduled its final neighborhood cleanup of the season for the same day. They're two separate events run by two different organizations, so check which one you signed up for before you leave the house.

Memorial trees are another open item. People who planted memorial trees on the site before the city bought it have been asked to contact Denver Parks and Recreation about their status. If your family has a tree out there, it's better to raise it now than after a design firm starts drawing plans.

When the Design Conversation Reopens

The next real chance to shape the park comes in the first quarter of 2027, after a design firm is hired. The city asks people to join its Park Hill Park mailing list to hear about next steps, and parkhillpark.org is the project's public hub.

That leaves a few months of the park as it is now: mowed edges along the walkways, mature trees, open sky over the old fairways, and a monthly trash pickup as the one regular event. Whatever the 2027 sessions decide will change what the land looks like. Walking it this fall and winter gives you a firsthand sense of the place before you sit down at those design sessions.

We follow projects like Park Hill Park because they shape the Park Hill and Congress Park blocks we work in every week. If you'd like a neighbor's read on what's changing around 35th and Colorado, or anywhere else in east Denver, The Tack Group is glad to talk it through. Work with The Tack Group.