Jeffco Open Space Wants Our Feedback!

Shape the future of county parks and trails

Jefferson County Open Space is creating a new strategic plan for the next five years. This plan will direct what Jeffco Open Space planning and spending for parks and trails owned and managed by Jefferson County Open Space. The county is now collecting feedback!

Please note I am not an employee or board member of Pleasant View Metropolitan District or Jefferson County. I just live in Pleasant View and want to help people know what’s going on and have a say in making our community great!

Open Space is Planning for the Future

I went to the March 5 open house hosted by Jefferson County Open Space at the Jeffco fairgrounds to find out more about the open space “Greenprint” or strategic plan. (It’s like a blueprint, but for parks, so it’s a greenprint)

In 2024, Jeffco Open Space conducted a resident survey to start getting ideas for the 2026-2030 Greenprint goals. The goals identified by the survey are:

1. “Learn and Lead:” Public education, volunteering, partnering with other organizations

2. “Steward and Improve Existing Parks and Trails:” Caring for and improving existing parks and trails, including green infrastructure and preserving historic buildings.

3. “Support Ecosystem Resilience:” Forest health, getting rid of invasive species, managing water resources, restoring grassland and wetlands.

4. “Preserving Land”: Preserving scenery and also preserving land for parks, including large-scale “landscape-level” preservation .

5. “Enhance Visitor Experience”: Educating visitors about share trails with each other, making outdoor places more inclusive (like signs in Spanish, etc).

6. “Create New outdoor opportunities:” Making parks and trails easier to get to, making different types of trails, making new trails and trailheads.

Jeffco Open Space put together a nice graphic of these goals that’s below. You can also find more information here on the Open Space website: https://www.jeffco.us/1585/Plans-Projects

What Feedback is Open Space Looking For?

At this point, Open Space doesn’t have a specific plan about what they want to do over the next five years to meet the goals I just talked about. Right now, they are looking for our ideas for how to meet those goals. The open house I attended was an in-person way to provide that feedback, but you can still provide feedback until the end of March. Here is the link to an online survey to fill out: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/2b88a2e14e6244a39d5825f182f64ec5

For each goal area, people were supposed to add notes about what the county was doing well already and what new things we hoped to see over the next five years. For example, for “Enhance Visitor Experience,” I said the really detailed trail maps online were something the county was doing well. I also said I hoped to see better off-leash dog and dog poop pick-up enforcement over the next five years.

Make sure your ideas are heard by filling out the survey: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/2b88a2e14e6244a39d5825f182f64ec5

I’m also curious what your ideas are! If you’re interested in sharing, please leave a comment, email me at laura.cardon23@gmail.com.

What’s Next?

Starting in April, Jeffco Open Space will go through all the public feedback and use it to make the actual Greenprint plan with specific ideas, projects, etc. The public gets to see that draft in Summer 2025 for more feedback. Then the plan is formally adopted by the Board of County Commissioners in Fall 2025. Open Space starts doing the things in the plan at the beginning of 2026.

No project happens overnight, so now is the time to provide your feedback so that Jeffco Open Space knows what matters to people who live in Pleasant View.

The Open Space site has a ton of resources on it, but if all of those pdfs are overwhelming, I’m happy to help you sort through them. Email me at laura.cardon23@gmail.com, call me or text me at 720-675-8093. We can grab coffee or a beer and figure it out together!

One more time, here is the Greenprint website: https://www.jeffco.us/1585/Plans-Projects

Here is the online survey for public feedback: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/2b88a2e14e6244a39d5825f182f64ec5

Please note I am not an employee or board member of Pleasant View Metropolitan District or Jefferson County. I just live in Pleasant View and want to help people know what’s going on and have a say in making our community great!