NEWS

Fort Collins closes park known as a transient hang out

Kevin Duggan
kevinduggan@coloradoan.com
James Olsen sketches at Jefferson Street Park on Monday. The city of Fort Collins will decommission the park, which was on private land leased to the city, to make way for a new restaurant.

A decades-old downtown Fort Collins park that in recent years became a hangout for homeless and transient people is closing.

Jefferson Street Park at the corner of Linden and Jefferson streets is scheduled to be decommissioned Wednesday. A crew is expected to arrive early in the morning to remove city-owned property such as the park’s sign, trash cans and picnic tables.

A fence is expected to be erected around the privately owned 0.75-acre site by Thursday or Friday, said Ryan Houdek, part-owner of the land.

A new restaurant is planned for the property, with construction beginning next year. Houdek owns the nearby Rodizio Grill.

The decommissioning is a first for the city’s park system, said Mike Calhoon, director of parks. But Jefferson Street Park was an unusual arrangement, with the city leasing the land through a deal with Union Pacific Railroad that dates to 1955.

“It’s very strange to have something go away," Calhoon said. “It was really nice of them for all those years to allow us to have a green space in the middle of downtown.

“It was just a postage stamp, but it was a nice postage stamp.”

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Most residents refer to the site as Jefferson Park rather than its proper name — Jefferson Street Park. Some refer to it derisively as “Hobo Park” because of those who often frequent it.

The closure has been expected for a few months. Providers of services to the homeless have been notified and asked to spread the word, said Beth Sowder, director of the city’s Social Sustainability Department.

Houdek said between the fence and communication outreach efforts, it should be clear the land is private property. The transition should go smoothly, he said.

“Hopefully it goes really well,” he said.

People wander in and out of the park all day, Houdek said. They appear to have options for places to go; now they will have one less option.

Fort Collins police report handling 2,913 service calls regarding homeless and transient people through September of this year, a 40 percent increase from 2015.

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Most transient calls used to be concentrated in Old Town and North College Avenue, police said. This year, calls have come from all over the city, with about 33 percent coming from downtown.

Calhoon said maintaining Jefferson Street Park to the standards of other city parks has been increasingly difficult the last few years. It became a place for people to loiter as they waited for nearby homeless shelters to serve meals or open for the night.

On fine summer days, dozens of people could be seen in the park, hanging out together in groups or sprawled out asleep on the grass. Police were called regularly to check on the welfare of a downed person or to respond to reports of fights and drug use.

Park maintenance crews were verbally accosted and spit on by people in the park, Calhoon said. They had to clean up all manner of debris, including broken bottles, human waste and used hypodermic needles.

Years ago, a single crew member could clean the park, Calhoon said. Because of safety concerns in recent years, no fewer than six crew members at a time have been sent into the park.

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The city of Fort Collins on Wednesday will decommission Jefferson Street Park to make way for development of a new Old Town restaurant.

Those who used the park as a daytime refuge will likely move to other park facilities if they’re looking for piece of grass to sit on, he said. That could be Library Park, which already has transient issues, or into city-owned natural areas along the Poudre River.

If problems follow, park rangers and police will respond, Calhoon said.

“Our parks are for everyone,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who they are. The only time we become concerned is when we see behaviors that violate city code.

“We’re going to compassionately impose our code — that’s what we do.”

The city never had the option of buying the land to keep it as a park. A deed restriction from Union Pacific, which still operates a rail line next to the land, prohibits if from permanently becoming a park, Calhoon said.

“It wasn’t even on the board for us to purchase as a park — ever,” he said.

Coloradoan senior reporter Pat Ferrier contributed to this report.

People cross Linden Street to go to the Fort Collins Rescue Mission from Jefferson Street Park on Monday in Old Town Fort Collins. The city is decommissioning the park, which was on private land leased to the city, to make way for development of a new restaurant.