Sand Creek Regional Greenway Partnership

Background Statement

The Sand Creek Regional Greenway (SCRG) is a nearly 13-mile public greenway, connecting the High Line Canal trail in Aurora with the South Platte Greenway in Commerce City. The SCRG trail runs through Aurora, Denver, and southern Commerce City. The trail completes a loop of miles of off-street urban trails in the metro region. The trail is paved in Commerce City and Denver with a mix of pavement and soft crusher fine trail in Aurora.

Sand Creek Regional Greenway is a wilderness in the city - and maintains a native ecosystem along Sand Creek. SCRG does not have irrigated or traditional landscaped city parks with non-native plants. We are currently fundraising for equity focused, and community led, trail enhancements such as maps, wayfinding and interpretive signage, and other trail amenities including native pollinator gardens and murals.

Sand Creek Regional Greenway is impacted by the construction occurring around it. While we own none of the land along the Greenway trail, we're a support organization to help the community get involved with and support this public resource.

All non-motorized uses of the trail are welcome: bicycling, horseback riding, walking, running, and pets on leashes. The trail is wheelchair accessible, except in detour areas.

The vision for the Sand Creek Regional Greenway dates back two decades. In the early-1990s, Stapleton Airport closed and opened opportunities for more beautiful park land in the northeast quadrant of the Metro area. Three cities, Commerce City, Denver, and Aurora, recognized the potential to develop a greenway along the main waterway in this region, Sand Creek. With the urging of and financial support from Great Outdoors Colorado (Lottery fund), the three cities and neighborhood volunteers formed the Sand Creek Regional Greenway Partnership.

The original issue that sparked the formation of the SCRGP was that the city partners and neighbors wanted the Sand Creek Greenway to be a regional park area with a similar look and feel in all the jurisdictions. This proved to be a sustainable vision and the three jurisdictions work closely as partners on the development of the Greenway, showing that inter-jurisdictional cooperation can bring better services and products to all the citizens.

Since the founding of the Sand Creek Regional Greenway Partnership, nearly 14 miles of off-road trail have been built in Commerce City, Denver and Aurora. In 2011, SCRGP hired its first AmeriCorps VISTA, who expanded our volunteer program and started a youth outreach program, Next Generation Partners. This youth program provides a combination of environmental education, service learning, outdoor recreation, and an introduction to careers in the natural resource field to local at-risk youth.

SCRGP continues to work to improve and expand the Sand Creek Regional Greenway, while simultaneously providing free or low cost programming and community volunteer opportunities. As each section of our trail is completed, we're devoting more of our attention to public engagement and investment in this incredible resource. Building good stewards of the trail--through programs that bring a greater understanding of the natural history of the riparian area and encourage use for nature study, recreation, transportation, introspection and family time--is increasingly a focus of our work.