Inside Arvada

Inside Gold Strike Park with Maki Boyle

• City of Arvada • Episode 21

Share episode

Send us a text

Senior Landscape Architect Maki Boyle discusses the Gold Strike Park revitalization project. Located at the confluence of Clear Creek and Ralston Creek in southeast Arvada, Gold Strike Park is known for being the location of the first documented gold discovery in Colorado. 

Maki shares what's happened so far with the project and what to expect next!  

In this episode: 

News and events: 

Visit us at ArvadaCO.gov/Podcast or email us at podcast@arvada.org.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Inside Arvada, the City of Arvada's podcast, where we bring you conversations with the people who make Arvada a thriving community. Hear stories about the past, present and future of Arvada through the lens of the city team members who help make it all happen. Explore the complex topics impacting our community, from the roads you drive to the water you drink, the parks where you play to what your neighbors think. Join us as we take you Inside Arvada.

Speaker 2:

Hello and welcome to episode 21 of Inside Arvada, the official City of Arvada podcast. I'm one of your hosts, sean Starr, thank you. A senior landscape architect with the city's park and urban design team, maki's been with the city for three years, managing the design and construction of various cities, parks, trails and open space projects throughout town, including Serenity Ridge Park, marge Roberts and many of our playground renovations. And, of course, she's also the project manager for Gold Strike Park, which was the topic of today's interview. And, as always, I'm joined by my co-host, katie Patterson. Hi, katie.

Speaker 1:

Hey, sean, yeah, really awesome interview with Maki today. I mean, goldstrike Park is essentially just an open space right now and it doesn't have any amenities. It's just a kind of pass-through on Ralston Creek Trail, so it was really exciting to hear what's going to happen at the park.

Speaker 2:

So let's get to it. Hi Maki, welcome to Inside Arvada. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll begin, like we do with every guest Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do for the city.

Speaker 3:

I'm a senior landscape architect. I work in the parks and urban design department in vibrant communities and neighborhoods and I mainly project manage the design and construction of parks and open space and trail projects.

Speaker 2:

And you've done some really great projects recently. Serenity Ridge Mark Roberts is under construction, but we're having you on today to talk about Goldstrike Park and the revitalization effort that the city is doing. For folks who don't know, goldstrike is located in the southeast part of town. You can recognize it by that big white pedestrian bridge there, kind of Sheridan, and 58th is kind of the major intersections there off the Ralston Creek Trail. And so first let's bring folks up to speed what makes Gold Strike Park such an important park in the city's history.

Speaker 3:

So special. Well, as you mentioned, it's right located on the most eastern edge of Arvada, so it's really an entry point into the city. By that effort, it can be this really iconic place. By the same token, it's also located in a very special ecological place, at the confluence of both Clear Creeks and Ralston Creek, where they come together creating a backwater condition where the park is located. And then, as I'm sure you've heard and by the name kind of tells, this was the site that we know now, thanks to the effort of Lois Lundstrom and the Arvada Historical Society, where gold was first found, first documented as found in the state of Colorado.

Speaker 2:

As the name would suggest, right and so for anyone who's not been there and I don't blame you if you've never been there, there's not a whole ton to see what is the kind of current state of the park right now if you were to go visit it.

Speaker 3:

I mean right now, there's really nothing there. If you actually traveled there by car, you'd hit a gravel lot and then just open space. You can see that beautiful white bridge in the background. Um, thanks to some of the effort that was done, I think after the 2000 gold strike plan. But um, if you're on that pathway, the Ralston regional trail, you would just zoom right through it. There's. There's nothing there, except for a couple sculptures. Actually, that's not true. So Charles Parson has two sculptures there that speak to some of the history.

Speaker 2:

And there are a few signs too that you can learn about kind of the history of the Lewis Ralston and the gold strike that occurred there in 1850. But those signs probably could use a little TLC and a little updating. And so that's why, for you know, for years now, like the city I think, has been kind of this like gaining momentum, of like really trying to activate this space and make this park something that people want to go to. And so take us through kind of maybe the past couple of years, the project that we've been working on and how it relates to kind of the scheme of the timeline of the park and where we're at right now.

Speaker 3:

Sure, yeah. So the last couple of years, I think, I was hired in 21. And one of the first things I was tasked with was to hire a consultant that we brought on board Wank Associates that worked on the schematic design and kind of reviewing some of the documentation and concept that had happened previously and then taking that through public engagement, which has happened the last couple of years. So we had two, three engagement windows where we went out to the public, we asked them you know what they envision out here now and then worked with a consultant to come up with a more appropriate design for present day.

Speaker 2:

And a lot of that recent effort kind of built on some other planning efforts. Right, there was, like I think you alluded to, a gold strike park master plan from 2000. It's mentioned in our park trails and open Space Master Plan from 2016. So we have something to build on. We're not kind of starting from scratch with this one.

Speaker 3:

Definitely, definitely. There was also. So 2000 was the first master plan that was done, like you mentioned, and then our Parks Master Plan in 2016. In 2019, most recently, there was also a plan done for Clear Creek, where it was also identified as a priority project.

Speaker 2:

And so you know, we were at Kite Fest and we did all the surveys. We were at Foster Dual Language Carnival doing engagement there. We had like a nature play exercise at the Kite Fest. That was really fun. That all led up to the release of a preferred site design report that we released about a year ago I think almost to the month. What is in that report?

Speaker 3:

Good memory. Yeah, I can't believe it had already been a year.

Speaker 2:

It seemed like half that amount of time. But what is that preferred site design report? What's in there and how does it guide the future of the project?

Speaker 3:

So in that report it reviews all the different things that we heard through the different public engagements and then how those things informed the way, the design, what happened with the design and the concept there. And then we also rehired Wank to do the construction documentation and over the past year we've really been working on taking that concept into construction documents that we can then bid out and moving all of those design elements into more detail so that we can build it, getting things like permitting ready and then coordinating with all of our partners too.

Speaker 2:

So that site design report that we put together, that was kind of just like all right, here's what we heard, here's's a vision, and then we're kind of taking that vision into like tangible construction documents so that we can actually build the park yes, exactly, thanks for explaining that. I think I jumped the gun there kind of take us through some of the highlights, like what did we hear from the, from the community, that they want and that'll be part of the of the new park?

Speaker 3:

So some of the elements we heard that we wanted to have at the park is this huge natural playground, sort of nature playground, so things like loose sticks, sand, gravel, rocks, sort of that natural nature type play that we grew up with, um revitalizing that in a park environment. Um, there's going to be a super large, big boulder that we heard, actually, from the public um that people are really excited about. So there'll be this big climbing boulder, um there'll be a large, flexible event lawn where we could have movies in the park and where school groups can gather um to support that. There'll also be an educational pavilion on the edge of that to provide some shade because, again, there's not much out there right now. So there's going to be tons of trees that are added to the program.

Speaker 3:

Speaking about some of those elements, we're going to do a bunch of restoration work along the creeks and then have boardwalks so that people can enjoy the creek but not necessarily get in the water, to protect both the riparian corridor as well as provide that experience to the public in a safe way. Actually is the the themed walking loops. So we'll have three themed walking loops that circumnavigate the park um in different ways and then whose stories intertwine um, those themes being indigenous stories that we're working with our partners at the Cheyenne and Arapaho, um excuse me, um historic stories about gold panning and, and um that history, as well as the ecological um parts to the being at the confluence of the Creek and um sort of that rich ecology that exists there.

Speaker 1:

That's really cool. That seems super unique to anything I've ever seen at one of our parks at least. Yeah, yeah, cool yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I don't know if we could compare this project to any that we have existing. Which is why we're doing it and we're putting so much time and effort is to make it really like a regional draw right Somewhere where people want to go, make it a point to go visit and not just kind of like not that other parks aren't great, but like let's give it, make it special so that people can we can really activate that space and give people a reason to go there.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. People can, we can really activate that space and give people a reason to go there. Absolutely. That location is so like set up to really be that regional draw too, just based on like being on the trail and the, the two highways there too, and everything.

Speaker 2:

So that's cool, yeah you know we work closely in our work system with adele from the festivals, uh commission, and so I envision like maybe some festivals going on there, some. You touched on some of the educational opportunities. So yeah, I mean, just when you start talking about what this could become, it gets really exciting. And so you know already talked about the preferred design report coming out a year ago. What have you as the project manager been doing since then? Because I doubt you just kind of gave that to me to publish on the website and just sat back and said, all right.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely Just sit back and eat my brownies. No, no, oh my gosh. So much. There's been a lot of coordination to happen, just getting those construction documents together interdepartmental coordination, outside stakeholder coordination, and then, not to mention that we did apply for some grants and we did get one. So far, we got a pretty big grant through ORLAP, which is the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Program through the National Park Service You've probably heard for $7.3 million, which is fantastic, huge congratulations on that, just like quick pause.

Speaker 1:

That's so awesome.

Speaker 3:

Thank you. It was a really big joint effort with our grants administrator and then the whole department really that Sean and I work for. We all work together on that.

Speaker 2:

I believe, the single largest grant that the city has received for a project run by the city, I believe.

Speaker 3:

Woohoo, that's so exciting.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Um, yeah. So we've been trying to get you know secure funding. We're going to obviously have a lot of funding from the city itself, but we need some outside sources to kind of build this to what we want it to become. Um, tell us more about like kind of the key milestones that we're looking at and you do the construction documents in like percentages, right, and so you kind of like march toward the 100. Where are we at now and where are we trying to get to here as the summer gets closer?

Speaker 3:

absolutely yeah. So we actually we just finished our 30, which doesn't seem like much but it's a big milestone. We have a 60-90% and we're trying to get 100% CDs completed by June and July. In the summer submit that to the city for review. Also at the same time we'll be putting in permits to Army Corps, cdot, a couple others. So the idea is to have all of our permitting and everything lined up by the fall so that we can put everything out to bid and bring on a contractor by November, december and really start break ground essentially by this winter.

Speaker 2:

Very exciting this is. I think I've heard you refer to as a marathon of a project, and so just kudos to just the stick-to-it-ness of like even a small step might take days and days of like, you know, emailing the same person or group over and over again, but there's just so many partners that we have to coordinate with, and so progress might seem slow at times, but when you zoom out and go, okay, we're going to be breaking ground, hopefully this calendar year. That's really exciting.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, totally Thanks.

Speaker 2:

Wanted to also expand a little bit on the storytelling aspects of the park and how we've been working with the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. You know the history of the park indicates that gold was the documented strike there with Lewis Ralston in 1850. And that's what kind of gives this park its, I guess, claim to fame. It's, I think, on the state historical registry and that's an important story to tell. But we also want to tell other people's stories about the folks who were inhabiting this land before. You know the gold panning happened there in this area, and so give us a little bit kind of insight into that process and how we're working with the tribes and telling their story. Incorporating some of their consulting really is what they're doing with us, right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3:

You know, I think just backing up a little bit we have such a huge opportunity at this site to tell the larger story right, like this is the first documented gold find in Colorado.

Speaker 3:

But, as you say, there were people here before right, and there's a long history before then and there'll be a long history moving forward, and so we have this chance to tell that story on a deeper level and all the different stories that have come forth.

Speaker 3:

So, as you mentioned, we've been lucky to build this relationship with the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes the past couple of years. We met with Chief Gordon Yellowman just a couple weeks ago actually to review some of the educational components and programmatic elements, site elements, to see if that's really how the tribes would tell the story. We really are committed to telling the tribe story in the most authentic way that we can, and so this is just a really important piece. But you know we learned from them to think about what it would be like to be a bird, you know on the site, or what it was like to be buffalo in this area at the time. I mean the conversation itself was so rich and exciting. I could go on and on and on get that consultation on how we're going to build this park in a truly authentic way.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's so cool and that relationship kind of started with the Little Raven Park project, right.

Speaker 3:

Yes, yeah, that's very cool. It was like a year or two ago, I think. Yeah, a couple years ago, yeah.

Speaker 2:

We a park that needed a name. Over there it was kind of part of that Sabelle development. And so we reached out to the community. Little Raven was the name that was proposed by a community member and then voted on and approved by council. And Little Raven was a chief of the Arapaho tribe. And so we we reached out to them initially just to be like, hey, we're naming the park little Raven park, uh, just kind of wanted to let you know, ensure that our messaging about him is accurate. And then that just kind of evolved organically really into them coming out here and helping us uh co-host, uh the celebration event of opening that park. And we've maintained that relationship, um, leaning into this gold strike park design um project and it's been really great. And um, yeah, it's just fun to like be able to tell the gold strike story because that's that's part of it and that's important, but the other uh stories are important as well.

Speaker 2:

So feels good before, uh, we go to the lightning round, we kind of finish, like we do with a lot of the guests is asking our guests maybe to clear up some misconceptions or some misinformation or what would you like to kind of clarify about the work that you do with the city Maki?

Speaker 3:

So I hadn't thought about this before but actually I kind of had thought it just peripherally. But there's so much that goes into park design and I don't know how much that's really thought about, you know, by the public or or by our departments. You know, I don't know how much people really know what I do and um, and how much effort goes into it. You know, um, there's the project management side of it, but then there's also the design right and doing design. You can do design, anyone can design right, but it can be good, it can also be really, really bad. And doing a really thoughtful design, being able to take the time to work with the tribes, being able to understand what our visitors are going to need and want, what keeps people safe, what draws people regionally All those things require a lot of effort and time and thought. And that's just something that I would just highlight that, landscape architects, we do a lot Understated, but we do a lot.

Speaker 2:

Not just picking out what sort of tree is going to go into the park. It's a lot more than that.

Speaker 3:

Way more, way more. No, no, ian's the tree guy.

Speaker 2:

He knows trees. Well, thanks for making that clarification, because I know Katie and I have mentioned that. We learned a lot about what you guys do through a separate project about making an improvement to Davis Lane that needs some improvement, and we learned you can't just stick whatever amenity you want in there. There's a lot of thought that goes behind it.

Speaker 3:

So Absolutely All right Thanks.

Speaker 2:

We ready for the lightning round?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'll take it over for the lightning round. Well, actually, before I do, we skipped over when we expect the park to be done.

Speaker 3:

Oh my gosh yeah. Just a minor detail, just a minor detail, because it's going to be a little bit.

Speaker 1:

Starting hopefully by early 2026. On the late end, maybe right we're in 2025 these days 2025, we mean that, so hopefully 2025, maybe early 2026 and then a couple years right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, more than likely, probably not until 2028. It's a fairly large project with so many different components and there'll be lots of some contractors out there and, in all honesty, there is nothing out there Like we're putting in all new utilities, we're plumbing utilities, we're putting water in electrical everything. So coordination with Excel. So it is going to take a little while, so we asked the public's patience, but it's going to be amazing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I was joking, it's the Ralston Road of park projects. Yeah, totally, I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but here we are but nice and smooth Sam. So excited to see it when it's done. Okay, so lightning round a series of quick questions for folks to just get to know you a little bit better. So first, what's your favorite thing about Arvada? It can be a person, a fact or a hidden gem.

Speaker 3:

I really enjoy going to Yak and Yeti with my co-workers. The buffet there is amazing and I didn't get paid to say this.

Speaker 1:

A great establishment.

Speaker 3:

yeah, oh, ramen 303, I guess is also really good.

Speaker 1:

What was your first, last or best concert?

Speaker 3:

Oh, one or the other. Oh, then I'll just say you can do all three if you want. My first one I remember being this big, huge festival of bands but Beastie Boys was there and I just remember being super psyched on that. And then I worked concert commission when I was in college. So I saw a gazillion bands you know like, from Indigo Girls to Moby and then Moby again at one point. But my favorite concert ever was U2 in San Francisco, definitely by far.

Speaker 1:

What brought you to Arvada?

Speaker 3:

The food, no, actually the work. I know it seems really boring, but I love what I do and this is a great, great place to do it.

Speaker 1:

We're glad to have you. What was your first job?

Speaker 3:

life guarding, swimming instructing, managing pools everything in a bathing suit that was me too it's a good one.

Speaker 1:

Good popular answers really yeah I think, so that and like cash register of some kind. What is your favorite project that you've done with the city?

Speaker 3:

Definitely Gold Strike. I think the opportunities at this park are pretty amazing. This is sort of a lifetime achievement project for me. To be able to build something like this, and to the quality and standard that Arvada has, is really really unique and lucky, honestly, yeah it's been great just to hear the tidbits that you've shared today and standard that Arvada has is really really unique and lucky.

Speaker 1:

Honestly, yeah, it's been great just to hear the tidbits that you've shared today and so excited to see it come to fruition. So thanks for being with us today.

Speaker 3:

Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, Maki.

Speaker 3:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

So, as a reminder, we always love to hear from you all our listeners. Please stay in touch with us. You can text us there's that link at the top of the episode. Just remember we can't reply directly to you there. Or you can email us at podcasts at arvadaorg. We'd love any feedback that you have.

Speaker 1:

And in that same vein, we also have a survey open right now. We wanted to do a very, very quick survey three-question survey as we wrapped up the end of our first year of podcasting, to hear from you all about what you've liked and what you'd like to see improved. So we'll put a link to that survey in the show notes and we really encourage you to take it and share your ideas and what you'd like to see in the next year. And then news things going on. Right now we are still in the process of searching for the city's new city manager position, and there's actually a lot going on this week for that. We're down to the three finalists for that process, and so the public meet and greet was actually yesterday, on the 21st, at City Hall, and then today City Council is doing interviews with those candidates, and so there will be more information up on the website as that process moves forward and a decision gets made, and so we'll link to that in the show notes as well.

Speaker 1:

And then wanted to let folks know that there's a section of the Ralston Creek Trail that's going to be closed for somewhere between four to five months and it's kind of a hard to find spot, but if you're familiar with the trail it's near the intersection with the Croke Canal, near Westwood's golf course, and so it's a small section of the trail just east of Quaker and west of the canal and that's being closed for a flood mitigation project, and so the project is going to improve the stream health and the flood carrying capacity for the stream, and then also there will be some different aesthetic and amenity improvements for the public that will be more visible there. And so there's details, a whole bunch of details about the project and kind of the impacts and the detour routes for pedestrians and cyclists and such. So we'll link to that web page in the show notes and then there'll be lots of signage on site as well. And then, sean, a couple more exciting things that you've been a part of.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so Old Town now has recycling bins. Our parks team recently installed some recycling receptacles around Old Town. I think there's about nine bins spread out around the pedestrian area, mainly in Old Town there. So keep an eye out for those and remember to drop your recyclables in there, not the trash. It's single stream, so regular aluminum, plastic, cardboard, paper, that sort of thing can go in those bins.

Speaker 2:

And then the other project we have going on is the city is working on a master plan for the Lake Arbor Community Center and Golf Course and we are really kicking off the community engagement for that project at a community open house on February 20th that's a Thursday at the Lake Arbor Golf Course and that will be in the evening from 4 to 6 pm. So we invite anyone who uses either of those facilities to come join us for that open house on Thursday February 20th. We'll link the project page in the show notes at arvadacogov slash Lake Arbor Master Plan. Thanks once again to our guest today, maki Boyle. Be sure to tune in to our next episode, where we will have a surprise guest. We're not quite sure yet who it is, but we will have someone on, so it'll be a surprise.

Speaker 1:

Stay tuned yeah no-transcript.

Speaker 2:

talked a lot about Lewis Ralston and his expedition to find gold and in 1850, when he did find the first documented gold strike in Colorado, that was great. But he actually only stayed in Colorado for that one day before moving on to California for more gold.

Speaker 1:

Wow.