Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Open Space Management topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Northglenn updates open-space management plan; council supports continued maintenance and habitat goals
Summary
Parks staff presented a 2025 update to the city's Open Space Management Plan, reviewing property-specific maintenance, fire-mitigation mowing, trail projects and habitat work. Council members voiced support and asked staff to proceed with the plan and return a final draft.
City parks staff presented updates to Northglenn's Open Space Management Plan on July 7, detailing property-by-property maintenance actions, trail repairs and habitat-protection measures, and asked council for direction to move the draft forward.
Parks manager Willis Waterhouse said the 2025 update adds references to the 2019 Unified Development Ordinance, clarifies site-specific past maintenance and ongoing practices, and tracks goals for ecosystem protection, safe passive recreation and wildfire mitigation. Waterhouse reviewed maintenance highlights across several properties: asphalt and trail work on the Farmers High Line Canal trail, shoreline stabilization and aeration-system maintenance at Crook Reservoir, replacement of deteriorated boardwalk with crusher-fine trails at Windbird Park, and ongoing Russian olive removal and pollinator projects at Crain Tree and Fox Run Nature Area.
The plan calls for routine practices across open spaces, including annual noxious-weed surveys and treatments, targeted mechanical and chemical control by habitat (mechanical-only in wetlands), monitoring and removal of hazard trees, maintaining mower-based firebreak widths (6'8 feet along trails; 10 feet along fences), and resurfacing crusher-fine trails as needed. Waterhouse also described volunteer and partner projects in 2024 and 2023, including a pollinator garden in partnership with the Butterfly Pavilion and community volunteer trail work.
Council asked several questions about tree pests and tree-replacement programs. When asked about beetles and Dutch elm disease, Waterhouse said the city's forester evaluates suspected infestations and that broad preemptive citywide treatments would require a budget decision. He said the city planted more than 150 trees this year through municipal planting programs and that the city's tree-sale program (offering trees at near-cost to residents) will expand next year.
Council members voiced support for proceeding with the plan and asked staff to continue outreach to residents about property-specific concerns (code enforcement for private-property issues) and to provide maps or pins for onsite features such as bat boxes. Staff said the open-space update would return for further consideration on July 28 if council desired; council members present generally expressed support for moving the draft forward.
No formal vote was recorded in the transcript on the open-space plan during the study session; staff will incorporate council feedback and return the item to the July 28 meeting for potential action.
