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Silverthorne discusses the new face of Arctic Placer Park at June 3 ice cream social

The playground equipment at Arctic Placer Park in Silverthorne. The town is hosting an open house today for residents to weigh in on potential renewal projects.
Special to the Daily |

Arctic Placer Park open house

What: A community open house and ice-cream social to gather input and discuss plans for Arctic Placer Park — one of the town’s aging public spaces

When: Wednesday, June 3 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Where: Arctic Placer Park, Polar Court in Silverthorne (by old elementary school site)

The event is open to the public and comes complete with free ice cream with all the fixings. For more information on the Silverthorne parks master plan, including upcoming open houses, see http://www.silverthorneparks.com.

Arctic Placer Park is in need of a serious facelift.

The park, found on the far end of Polar Court near the old elementary school site in Silverthorne, is nearly 20 years old, and no longer meets community needs. There’s a small playground and even smaller picnic area, and, over the years, the surrounding neighborhood has outgrown the modest park.

Silverthorne wants to change that. Today from 5-7 p.m., town officials and planners with Denver-based DHM Design will host a free ice-cream social at the park to collect resident input.



The goal is simple: How can Arctic Placer change to best serve the folks who live within a few blocks?

“We have some very nice parks the community knows and loves, but Arctic Placer is one that is aging and tucked away,” said Susan Lee, a planner with the town’s community development department. “Not many people know it’s there, and it could use a facelift, if not a major overhaul.”



The park may be small, but Lee says it’s an incredible — and often overlooked — asset, starting with an unofficial trail that leads to the Mesa-Cortina system on U.S. Forest Service land. With enough community interest, particularly from skiers who use the park as a home base in the winter, the town is looking at a purpose-built trail.

Above all, the town wants as much input as possible from park users, hence the ice-cream social. Lee wants residents to weigh in on how they currently use the park and how it can change for the better.

“We want to make this fun and exciting and useful for everyone who lives there,” Lee said of the town’s hopes for the park. “We want to go a little deeper than just replacing the playground equipment. We’re hoping we can take this to the next level through public outreach.”

Arctic Placer was one of three Silverthorne parks pinpointed last summer through surveying for the Silverthorne Parks, Open Space and Recreational Trails master plan, dubbed SPORT. The other two, Trent Park at the Willowbrook neighborhood and Angler Mountain open space, are also slated for facelifts and outright development over the next few years. The community department will work closely with DHM to build creative, long-lasting plans for all three parks.

The town will host two additional open houses, all with free ice cream and plenty of opportunities to weigh in on the future of local parks. The next is held at Trent Park on June 11, with the third at the Angler Mountain open space on June 16.


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