Estes Park's town board unanimously adopted the 2026 Parks and Open Spaces Master Plan at an October 13 meeting, outlining a comprehensive 20-year vision for the community's outdoor areas. This plan aims to transform local trails, parks, and plazas into an interconnected system designed to enhance “quality of life, scenic enjoyment, and community gathering” for residents and millions of annual visitors. Parks Supervisor Brian Berg presented the plan to Mayor Gary Hall and the town trustees, emphasizing its role as a long-term roadmap.
Berg described the master plan as an 18-month, community-guided effort. Input was gathered through various channels, including focus groups, surveys, workshops, and youth activities, to shape the future of Estes Park's outdoor spaces. The plan envisions a town where downtown parks are linked into a "linear park" along the rivers, with more accessible routes connecting neighborhoods to parks, improved inclusive recreation areas, and stronger protection for natural environments.
The plan is structured around five core themes: the downtown experience, the coexistence of visitors and wildlife, parks engaging everyone, natural areas and open spaces, and maintenance and operations. Each theme includes defined goals and proposed actions, categorized into four levels: near-term (1-3 years), mid-term (4-7 years), long-term (8-15 years), and ongoing. Many of the immediate actions focus on the downtown area, while ongoing efforts encompass maintenance, assessment, and planning.
The current park system in Estes Park is largely concentrated in small plaza and river-corridor parks downtown. The new vision for downtown aims to integrate the Riverwalk and adjacent parks into a single, connected public landscape, rather than a collection of separate points. The objective is to make downtown parks and the river corridor a more vibrant, accessible, and connected civic space that still reflects the distinctive character of Estes Park. Near-term actions to achieve this include implementing a wayfinding and signage program for pedestrians, developing downtown park design and landscape guidelines, and repairing uneven walking surfaces to improve ADA accessibility. Additional proposed near-term actions cover renovating aging landscaping at Children’s Park, the Riverwalk, and Wiest Park; enhancing river access points and park gateways; and identifying suitable locations for scenic overlooks and gathering areas. Comfort elements like shade, seating, restrooms, lighting, and shelter are also part of the near-term strategy. At Performance Park, specific opportunities identified include improving accessible circulation and seating, better organizing lawn and plaza areas, supporting existing uses like climbing, and creating more ways for the public to engage with the river.
Addressing human-wildlife conflicts is a significant aspect of the plan. Issues such as elk grazing in Bond Park during events and deer consuming annual plantings downtown are common. Berg indicated a shift towards a more native planting concept in the downtown area, aiming to reduce attractions for wildlife. He suggested that spreading out native plantings while keeping annuals in some pockets, or using fencing options, could deter elk. The plan also addresses bears, with Berg noting that while waste ordinances are effective when followed, the town also seeks to eliminate natural attractants by planting non-fruiting varieties of trees like chokecherries and crab apples. Other measures include signs explaining wildlife corridors, multilingual education materials, and clear information on whom to contact regarding wildlife conflicts. The plan also recommends monitoring visitor use and wildlife impacts to identify sensitive locations that may require seasonal or conditional closures, working in cooperation with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and other partners.
Natural areas and open spaces are fundamental to Estes Park’s identity. Near-term actions focus on protecting sensitive habitat, wildlife corridors, and town-owned riparian areas along the Big Thompson and Fall rivers. Berg cited the Black Canyon as an example where native vegetation and willows prevented significant bank damage during the 2013 flood, highlighting proper bank management. The plan also calls for an urban forest management plan in the near-term, with specific approaches for the downtown core, river corridor, rights-of-way, and trails. This plan would provide guidance for planting, maintenance, succession, risk reduction, and tree removal. Berg, who is also the town’s certified arborist, noted the aging of cottonwood and ash trees downtown and the need to diversify tree species and ages within the urban forest, particularly given the challenges of the region’s dry and windy ecosystem and recent lack of moisture. The plan further emphasizes exploring open space opportunities, through purchasing or trading land, a priority for many survey respondents. It also recommends identifying priority conservation areas in partnership with organizations like the Estes Valley Land Trust, Larimer County, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
To ensure parks engage everyone, mid-term actions include identifying access gaps and improving walking and biking connections between neighborhoods, parks, trails, schools, and civic destinations. A benchmark in the plan is to increase the share of homes within a 15-minute walk of a park. Recommendations involve identifying priority sidewalk and trail projects, addressing missing connections and unsafe crossings, and considering barriers such as topography, distance, and ADA accessibility. Proposed actions include safe-route improvements, a formalized connection to the Fall River Trail trailhead, and acquiring or developing neighborhood park spaces in areas with access deficiencies. Longer-term possibilities include creating accessible trail routes at Thumb Open Space for off-road wheelchairs and adaptive mobility devices.
The plan also addresses maintenance and operations, calling for clearer responsibility-sharing between the Parks Division and Public Works for civic spaces and shared infrastructure. It also seeks better coordination for event setup, cleanup, and recovery at high-use venues like Bond Park and Performance Park. Berg acknowledged the need to work with event staff to find a "happy medium" to minimize damage to parks from high-attendance events. The master plan concludes by noting that strategic investment in physical improvements, partnerships, and staffing will be necessary to maintain the system, with its recommendations intended to guide future decisions rather than lock the town into a fixed project list.
