Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes! Coming Soon to Villa Park

10/23/2026 · Neighborhood Team

Trees changing from green to yellow along 12th Avenue in Villa Park, Denver

All across Villa Park, the signs of change are everywhere. The urban farm operated by Westwood-based nonprofit Re:Vision is in harvest mode, jack-o-lanterns are appearing on stoops, and the leaves on the trees in the gulch are turning shades of yellow and orange. With the end of the Summer heat, fall is a great time to reflect on the changes from the past year, but here in Villa Park, change is on the horizon instead of in the rearview mirror!

Upgraded Basketball Court

First on our list of upcoming changes is a refresh of the basketball court that sits just north of Grove Street and 12th Avenue. This basketball court has been here for years, but due to its uneven and cracked surfaces, it didn’t get a lot of use. Here is a little before and after:

An image of how the basketball court at 12th and Grove looked before

A refinished basketball court with a very intimidating vehicle in front of it

Hopefully the resurfacing makes it a more attractive place to play! Denver has also created a new, accessible ramp to the court to make it easier for everyone to shoot some hoops. Here’s how it looks:

A newly accessible ramp connecting to the Villa Park basketball court

New Path Connecting Gulch Trail to Hazel Bridge

Have you ever heard of a desire path? Desire paths are unpaved places that people want to walk, and walk there so much that they wear out little dirt paths through the grass. Here in Villa Park, there was a desire path on the Lakewood Gulch Trail, just north of 12th Avenue between Hooker Street and Hazel Court, that connected the trial to the bridge crossing the train tracks. Here it is from above:

An aerial image of the desire path leading to the bridge in Villa Park, Denver

Well, this path has been fully paved and is now open for walking! This won’t just make it safer to walk and bike through that area, it also makes it more accessible, and cuts down on the time it will take for people to get to the bridge, whether they’re headed to the other side of Paco Sanchez, the light rail, or wherever else they may need to go. It seems that this upgrade and the basketball court may have been a part of Denver’s Place Network Investigation to make the area safer. Regardless of how it came about, they are cool upgrades! Check it out:

An image of the desire path, paved, in Villa Park, Denver

Neighborhood Traffic Management Plan Upgrades

It doesn’t take too much time living in Villa Park to realize that crossing the street here can be quite dangerous, which is too bad considering our amazing network of bike and pedestrian trails! We even formed the Mobility and Infrastructure Circle (which you should join) to advocate for street improvements here in our neighborhood to make it safer to get around. The city is improving a number of crossings that should make it safer in the near future!

There are six upgrades coming to you from the Neighborhood Traffic Management Plan, these are:

■ 6th Ave & Perry St Pedestrian Walkway Enhancements
■ 10th Ave & Perry St Intersection and Bus Stop Enhancements (Curb Extensions, Curb Ramps)
■ 10th Ave & Lakewood Gulch Trail Pedestrian Crossing Enhancements (Pedestrian Refuge Island)
■ 10th Ave & Meade St Intersection Enhancements (Curb Extensions)
■ Perry St & Lakewood Gulch Trail North Pedestrian Crossing Enhancements (Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon, Marked Crosswalk)
■ 12th Ave & Knox Ct Pedestrian Crossing Enhancements (Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon, Pedestrian Refuge Island

These changes should make it much safer to move through Villa Park, and after 6 years the city is finally installing them. I won’t take up too much space on this page outlining these because you can read more about the NTMP for West Colfax and Villa Park in depth here, but here is an example of the type of improvement you can see at these intersections:

An image from the NTMP, at 10th and the Gulch Trail

Pedestrian Crossing Upgrades

Last but not least on this list are the Pedestrian Crossing Upgrades! These are promised for 2027 and are funded by the RISE Bond (which means they have to get these done on a time scale, chop chop!). It seems like these have been announced more recently, and are somewhat minor upgrades compared to the other stuff on this list, but still should make our area that much safer to get around. Three crossings are getting upgrades in this plan, they are:

■ Perry Street and Lakewood Gulch Trail (South of 10th, different from the one in the NTMP)
■ 10th Avenue and Wolff Street
■ 12th Avenue and Julian

DOTI’s website has more info, but this is the type of upgrade you can expect at the aforementioned crossings:

An image from DOTI's website displaying the upgrades at Perry Street and the Gulch trail

You can see more about all the upgrades on the 2027 Pedestrian Crossing Construction page on DOTI’s website here.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tour of upcoming improvements to our neighborhood. It’s exciting to live in a place that is changing, and its even more exciting to be a part of that change. If you want to be a part of changing our neighborhood into everything it is capable of - a place where all our welcome and opportunities abound - join us! Feel free to Contact Us if you have great ideas for neighborhood improvements in the future, too!