The City of Arvada opened its newest park, the Garrison Garden Paseo on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, in partnership with the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority (AURA). The new linear park — or paseo — is located between 57th Avenue to the south and Ralston Road to the north. The newly designed walkway adds a gentler slope to the existing corridor to make the space more accessible for all users. The Paseo creates better, safer connections for residents with transit, grocery and other amenities along Ralston Road, including Ralston Central Park, the Ralston Creek Trail and many new restaurants and shops that are planned in the area over the next several years.
“Before this became the Garrison Garden Paso, this area was really quite narrow, Maureen Phair, director of AURA, says. “There was one path that came straight down, with no curves so that if you were walking or biking it was not an easy area to navigate. If you were riding down, it was steep and if you were walking up, it was a slow haul. There was no landscaping and no lighting so sometimes it could be a little scary. About five years ago the AURA board, during a retreat, was talking about all of the lovely amenities that we were building off of Ralston Road including the Ralston Central Park, the Ralston Creek Trail, and all of the new restaurants including the new beer garden which will open up next spring,” she says. “If you live in the neighborhood south of the new Garrison Garden Paso, it was very hard for you to get to all of the new Arvada amenities. You either had to come down an unwelcoming path or you went through the Walmart parking lot.
“The idea was to create a park that invites people to travel back and forth between the neighborhood and this new commercial area,” Phair continues. “That was the vision behind the new park. We made the path wider by working with the community gardeners and the developer of the adjacent condos to increase the width to 50 feet wide right away. We recognized that there were a lot of constraints to the site like a big hill but we turned those into amenities. Now we have a beautiful, terraced hill that resembles bleachers so residents can sit, and enjoy the view and even the fireworks on the 4th of July. We accessed the Swadley Ditch to create a stream through the park and we added lighting so that you can feel safe walking through the area at night. It is called a paseo because paseo in Spanish is an area that is a leisurely walk.”
The Paseo features a shaded overlook with views of the neighboring Arvada Community Garden, the park, and the Arvada landscape. The new park also includes demonstration gardens along the central path that connects W. 57th Avenue to Ralston Road.
“I’ve been to the Arvada Gardens but have not been here to the new park since it opened. What a thrill. They’ve given us a stream,” Arvada Resident Mary Jo Giddings said. It’s one of the things that makes it so special.”
To learn more about the new Garrison Garden Paseo, visit https://www.arvadaco.gov/979/Garrison-Garden-Paseo
