For neighborhood that lost its playground, two plans emerge
Proposals call for sites up to 2,500 square feet
Your HubJohn C. Ensslin
Friday, February 8, 2008
It's famine to feast in a Park Hill neighborhood that lost a popular playground outside a local coffeehouse last summer.
After insurance liability concerns scrubbed the informal playground and scuttled an attempted city-brokered compromise, the 2200 block of Kearney Street has gone from having no playground to having two privately financed proposals.
At a community meeting in the District 2 police station Thursday night, Perk Hill Coffee House owner Darren Spreeuw unveiled a proposal to build a gated 2,500- square-foot playground across the street by leasing four of the 24 spaces in a condominium parking lot.
In addition, Councilwoman Marcia Johnson announced that the owner of Dardano's Gymnastic School has offered to lease three parking spaces as a smaller site for a private playground about 50 paces down the block from Perk Hill.
In a caucus-like show of hands, nearly all of the 85 residents at the meeting favored Spreeuw's proposal after he announced a possible donation of $40,000 worth of equipment to the larger site.
KaBOOM!, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for children's playgrounds within walking distance, made the offer after reading about efforts to revive the defunct playground, Spreeuw said.
The donation is contingent upon getting a site of at least 2,500-square-feet and a matching grant of $10,000, Spreeuw said.
The neighborhood already has the matching funds, courtesy of an earlier offer from the nonprofit arm of the Colorado Home and Garden Show.
But the proposal still faces two significant hurdles.
First, the homeowner's association of the Covington Condominium Association would have to agree to lease the four spaces for the playground.
If they approve it, the measure then would need to obtain a variance from the Board of Adjustment for eliminating the four parking spaces.
And if that happens, the neighborhood would have to provide a minimum of 75 volunteers to donate one day's labor to help build the playground, Spreeuw said.
The playground would help all of the stores in the neighborhood, he said.
Johnson said that the neighborhood would have to commit to maintaining the playground. Spreeuw said he has formed a nonprofit to help do that.
He said he hopes to raise funds by starting a farmers market in the area.
He said the nonprofit also has obtained insurance and hopes to negotiate a lease with the homeowners association.
Johnson said the second smaller playground proposal could be a "fall-back" plan in case Spreeuw's plan fails.
But she said she is grateful that the neighborhood has such options.
"It's a wealth of riches to have two private plans," she said.
