Thornton is annexing hundreds of acres of previously purchased land in its northern boundaries to begin planning for a ballfield complex and other open space and park sites to serve the city’s ballooning population.
“This is land that the city purchased with our parks and open space funds anywhere from 10 to a few years ago,” said Chris Molison, development director in Thornton. “We waited until a number of pieces of land had been purchased (to incorporate) them all at the same time.”
The city plans to formally annex and zone upward of 15 of its dormant land parcels in the next year. All of the land is north of 136th Avenue and near E-470, and designated for park and trail development.
Diane Van Fossen, capital projects and planning manager for the city’s open space division, said there are four primary parcels of open space along Big Dry Creek that are being targeted for budgeting and planning this year.
One 60-acre piece of land near the east side of Colorado Boulevard at 148th Avenue is the future site of a lighted ballfield complex. The city will begin designing the complex this year and settle on a construction timeline after available funding is figured out.
“That (land) was purchased in 2010 for active recreation,” Van Fossen said. “It has beautiful views of the Front Range with the Signal Ditch running through it.”
She said a grant from the Adams County Open Space Program assisted in funding a portion of that land acquisition. Ten of the 60 acres on the southeast portion of the site is held under conservation easement by Adams County as open space for passive use.
“The open space properties that allow passive use activities will provide future regional connectivity to the Big Dry Creek Trail,” Van Fossen said. “Future trail connections are not currently budgeted but will be evaluated annually as growth continues in the northern portions of the city.”
All of the park expansion is happening in the northern area because everything south of 136th Avenue is built out or is in the planned phases of a full buildout.
The north is “where the large majority of the city’s growth area is,” Molison said. “There are very few options for park development in the southern parts of the city, and nothing as large as the recently incorporated pieces.”
Thornton is already at its halfway mark for total projected population capacity.
“We’re a little over 120,000 people now, and we’ll be approaching 250,000 people at full buildout,” said John Cody, Thornton economic development director. “The land north of 120th and east of I-25 is where most of the developable land remains.”
Though there are few concrete uses figured out for the newly annexed parcels, Cody said it was important to snap up the land early.
“Years ago, we weren’t ready to develop in the north area,” he said. “But we knew we would one day, and now here we are.”
Megan Mitchell: 303-954-2650, or mmitchell@denverpost.com