Real World Events
10AM-5PM Opening Day: Splash Water Park
The Splash opens today. They are very short of lifeguards, so that may cut into the open hours this summer. If you’re a lifeguard–or want to get certified as one–please contact the city.
10AM-12PM Historic Golden Walking Tour @ Golden Library
10AM-12PM Wild West Walking Tour @ Golden Visitors Center
10AM-3PM Brunch at the Rose @ Buffalo Rose
10AM-3PM Dinosaur Express Train @ Colorado Railroad Museum
10:15AM Family Time @ Golden Library
1PM The Princess and the Pea @ Miners Alley Playhouse
1-2PM, 4-5PM Wild West Short Tour @ Goosetown Station
1-4PM Wild West Pub Crawl @ Golden City Brewery
4-7PM Lucha Libre Night Fight (Part 2) @ Nomad Taqueria & Beer Garden
4:30-6:30PM Wild West Walking Tour
7:30-10PM Golden Ghosts & Spirits Tour @ Goosetown Station
7:30PM Blue Ridge @ Miners Alley Playhouse
Live Music
11AM-2PM Erik Hill @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)
12PM Chris Dismuke / Ham Bone Duo / CastAways @ Mountain Toad
1PM Still the Same @ Dirty Dogs Roadhouse
3-5PM – Bruce Cook @ Rock Rest Lodge
4PM TBD Band @ Coda Brewing
4PM Edsel’s Garage @ Wrigley’s
5-8PM Band of Randoms @ Goosetown Station
6PM Poor Till Payday @ Dirty Dogs Roadhouse
7-10PM Conal Rosanbalm @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)
9PM Karaoke @ Ace Hi Tavern
Golden History Moment
These days, the City of Golden has lots of plans. We have a Transportation Master Plan, a Clear Creek Master Plan, a Parks Master Plan, and a Community Wildfire Protection Plan. We have a series of neighborhood plans, and the One Ring to Rule Them All–the Comprehensive Plan.
The History Museum is working on a strategic plan. By the end of the year, we’ll have an open space master plan. The city is working on a municipal electric vehicle master plan.
The precursor to all of these was the Golden Opportunity Plan. It was commissioned in 1969, at a time when suburban sprawl was radiating out of Denver like a seismic wave. Many in Golden feared that we would lose our individual character. Some feared that any kind of plan would stymie growth. The consultant who wrote the plan introduced the topic by saying “We should not and cannot demean humanity by stopping growth.”
The Golden Opportunity Plan included several interesting ideas.
1) The 12th Street residential area would be redeveloped into stores and offices. The houses there were considered old and tired and in need of urban renewal.
2) North and South Table Mountain would be developed for residential use. Since it would be expensive to bring water and sewer service to the mesas, the plan suggested that those homes rely on wells and septic systems.
3) The plan recommended an aerial tramway from South Table Mountain to downtown Golden, and another from Lookout Mountain to downtown Golden. The consultants suggested that tramways would relieve the need for roads to the mesa.
4) 12th Street would continue west to intersect with Hwy 6. This would go through School of Mines land (past the football stadium). The Mines president said he would be amenable to that, provided the City approved shutting down Illinois Street through the campus.
5) 12th Street from Ford all the way to the School of Mines would become a pedestrian mall.
The plan was presented to the Planning Commission in 1970. After that, it languished and was never approved by City Council. In October of 1971, the City Attorney asked Council to vote on the plan, because he said our zoning regulations were invalid until the plan was approved.
The Planning Commission discussed it again in 1972. They recommended that Council pass it, with a few caveats. They thought the aerial tramways were a bad idea because they went over people’s houses. They said we needed a lot more parks, and should make an inventory of historical sites. Golden businessmen were protesting the idea of turning 12th Street into a pedestrian mall, because it would cause traffic snarls.
City Council finally reviewed the plan in August of 1972. They approved everything except the zoning pages (which was what the City Attorney had said they most needed). Without the zoning sections, the plan had no legal validity.
After that, the plan was only referred to with a notes of disgust.
In 1973, a Transcript editorial said, “Golden had a plan once, remember it? It was the Golden Opportunity Plan and it sat around for a year before council decided to approve it. It has since, it seems, been placed squarely on the shelf where it will probably stay and the devil take the city’s future.”
In 1974, the Planning Commission asked City Council to either resurrect or bury the plan. Council did neither.
In 1977, people were still asking what happened to the Golden Improvement Plan. References continued to appear in Transcript articles into the 1980s.
Thanks to the Golden History Museum for providing the online cache of historic Transcripts, and to the Golden Transcript for documenting our history since 1866!
