Colorado county invests $15 million in new parks

Douglas County Board of County Commissioners commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Parks, Trails, Historic Resources and Open Space Fund Tuesday. It's a voter-approved 0.17% sales and use tax that helps preserve resources throughout Douglas County.

Two new projects have been announced using some of the parks-allocated funding.

Douglas County will contribute $7.5 million to Lone Tree for High Note Regional Park and another $7.5 million to Parker for Salisbury Park.

"Today, we are going to be delivering truly the most historic and record-setting level of parks and recreation amenities that this county has ever seen," Commissioner Abe Laydon said.

Youth sports groups and families have long asked for more ball fields in the growing county.

While Douglas County has already announced mega sports complex "Zebulon" will be built in Sterling Ranch, other areas of Douglas County are still in need.

But, now, $7.5 million of county funds have been approved to break ground on High Note Regional Park. Along with $9 million from the city of Lone Tree, $13 million from South Suburban Parks and Recreation, $1 million from the Southeastern Public Improvement Metropolitan District, and $580,000 from Great Outdoors Colorado, phase one of the park will total $31 million.

"This will be phase one of an 80-acre park. Amenities include the athletic fields, community swing, a huge playground in the middle, and even a dog park," Lone Tree Mayor Marissa Harmon said.

Harmon said the park will be developed near RidgeGate and Interstate 25 and next to the incoming Lyric community.

"There will be two large, athletic, lit soccer fields that can be divided into multiple fields as well for the little kids," Harmon said.

In Parker, a longtime equestrian park will expand to add sports fields there.

"Salisbury Regional Park is a central park for the town of Parker," Parker Mayor Joshua Rivero said. "Parker was going to grow, and we knew this would be in the middle of the whole area, so we started with a multi-use field and four baseball diamonds. This expansion adds four more baseball diamonds, two more multi-use fields."

Salisbury will also get a new event lawn, 21 pickleball courts, a BMX track and a playground.

"Just going to create a true Central Park for our community," Rivero said.

The park runs along Cherry Creek Trail and will be accessible by bicycle and car.

Rivero said the town has been saving for this expansion for years and will contribute $10.3 million to the first phase of the park, which totals $28 million in cost. With the county's help, Rivero said the park will open sooner.

"We get kids on those fields sooner than later," Rivero said.

Castle Rock youth sports leaders still say their community is in need of more fields. Rivero hopes Salisbury Park can serve kids from other communities too.

"There just is not enough fields. With the amount of demand, this is going to satisfy that. It gives us an opportunity for tournaments," Rivero said.

Mark Steinke, president of Raptors Athletics, a youth sports league in Castle Rock, told CBS Colorado, "I absolutely support the new fields going in. We don't use fields outside of our territory. So we won't have access to those. We are still struggling for fields and other facilities for all of our youth sports. I have spoken with the county commissioners, and I believe they are aware of our struggles and supportive of our efforts to increase field availability in Castle Rock."

Tuesday evening, a Douglas County spokesperson said the county will be making a $7.5 million investment into a Gold Crown basketball-focused sports facility in Castle Rock.

Parker plans to break ground on the expansion of north Salisbury park Monday and said the fields could be up and running as soon as next fall. The total acreage on the expansion is 91 acres.

High Note will break ground next spring, and Harmon hopes it will open in 2027.