Clear Creek Trail (formerly Peaks-to-Plains Trail) Downtown Golden Alternatives

Clear Creek Trail South Design Plans - Public Review Feedback

Below is a live summary of feedback and themes received by City staff during public engagement in May 2026. This includes the May 5 public open house, online design feedback survey (open May 5 - 19), May 21 Parks and Recreation Advisory Board meeting, and any other comments received via email or in person. This summary will be regularly updated to give the public a sense of feedback on the design plans.

This feedback will be used to inform the final engineering design plans. The public is encouraged to review this document to ensure City staff have accurately captured their feedback and can contact planningshared@cityofgolden.net with any additional ideas, questions or concerns.

General Public Feedback

• Implement a 'pedestrian safety corridor' from 8am - 5pm, May 1 to October 1. This should include a bike speed limit of 2 mph and/or a dismount zone in the following areas:
  • Near Adventure West
  • Vanover Park
  • South Clear Creek Trail (Illinois to Washington)
  • North Clear Creek Trail (RV Park to Washington)
• Provide clear, updated renderings or design documents depicting what Millstone Condo owners can expect to see outside of their windows and patios
  • How did the plans go from concept/30% to 90% without public input? Why were there no meetings in 2025?
• The City should conduct a formal structural engineering and hydrological assessment by an independent third party, specific to the Millstone Condos, prior to any construction. This assessment should evaluate potential impacts of vegetation removal, grading changes, and trail widening on soil stability, creek behavior, and building safety.
• Millstone Condo residents chose to live along the creek corridor because of its natural beauty. We do not want to see this replaced with a sterile, treeless pathway dominated by railings and infrastructure.
• Question whether widening the trail addresses season congestion driven by commercial recreation. It is worth exploring operational solutions such as requiring local adventure companies to manage transportation for their customers, perhaps shuttling them upstream rather than placing the environmental, social, and economic burdens on residents and businesses.
• Pursue alternative approaches, including:
  • Evaluate a freestanding trail on the north side of the creek where infrastructure improvements are needed and residential impacts may be minimized.
  • Incorporate user management strategies to reduce pedestrian/bicycle conflicts
  • Preserve existing vegetation and natural features
• Pause the project until meaningful community engagement can occur.

May 5 Public Open House (Golden Community Center)

• General Feedback
  • Add a connecting trail next to US6 to Downtown Golden
  • Arapahoe and 11th intersection is not well designed for people to walk across to creek
  • Add trail speed limit signs
  • Add trail speed bumps or corrugated concrete (see example on High Line Canal)
  • Widening the trail will increase speeds and cause conflicts
  • Trail traffic is only bad five weeks a year, otherwise not a problem
  • Need a pedestrian crossing, signal and speed bumps at Ford and 7th (please see the North Ford Complete Street project page).
  • Make pedestrian safety a priority. Dismount zones are a key part of this in popular areas of town.
  • Any progress made last year getting bikes to yield to pedestrians on the creek trail is gone this year. No yielding, weaving in between groups of people, no warning bells, almost brushing walkers.
  • Cyclists should only be allowed on the south trail, even gate the north trail to prevent cyclist use
  • Why not turn 10th Street into a shared street? Road diet, share with bikes and cars, speed limit is slow and people speed!
  • How does this project solve the problems of 'high frequency interactions with various types of users' and 'high pedestrian activity near downtown'?
  • The path here could never be wide enough for shared usage
• Near-Term and Longer-Term Preferred Alternatives (confirmed during previous public engagement, not subject to change as part of the design process)
  • I like the Church Ditch trail option; avoids downtown creek trail chaos
  • Why would a new ramp to the existing SH58 pedestrian bridge be necessary? Seems like it would increase bike speed and be a waste of money
  • Is it possible to have fewer driveway crossings for the Church Ditch trail option?
  • Support Washington Avenue underpass for the Church Ditch trail option; need a bridge over Ford Street
  • Like the near term option using the existing creek trail
  • Existing trail and bridge width of 10 feet doesn't seem like a big issue
  • The longer-term option to cross the railroad near East Street seems like an expensive addition with minimal benefit. It serves as a shortcut but not that big an issue?!
• Illinois Street/Billy Drew Bridge to Washington Avenue Segment
  • A lot of people stop and wait in the Billy Drew and south creek trail intersection. Can we add benches, stones to sit on, designated loitering space?
  • Add a roundabout to the Billy Drew and south creek trail intersection (part of near-term preferred alternative)
  • Speed markings on the pavement to increase bikes yielding to pedestrians
  • Dedicated bike and pedestrian lanes/space
  • Shade structures over benches?
  • Slow traffic on the other side of Clear Creek
• Washington Avenue Crossing
  • Add more bike parking in this area, people lock bikes to random things for downtown events
• Washington Avenue to Ford Street Segment
  • I live at the corner of the trail off 11th Street and have seen at least 10 accidents in three years: bike on bike, bike on people.
  • Too many speeding bikes and e-bikes
  • Keep bikers and tubers on north side of creek (already part of the City's creek management strategies)
  • Happy to put a trail count camera on my balcony, not convinced there is a problem or too much trail demand
  • Need more trail user conflict solutions
  • Tubers often get out along the south bank, especially near the trail off 11th Street
  • Need improvements to the 11th Street trail and south Clear Creek Trail intersection
• Ford Street Crossing
  • Add a pedestrian crossing signal
  • Tubers jaywalking on Ford Street