Redevelopment
While Denver International was being constructed, planners began to consider how the Stapleton site would be redeveloped. A private group of Denver civic leaders, the Stapleton Development Foundation, convened in 1990 and produced a master plan for the site in 1995, emphasizing a pedestrian-oriented design rather than the automobile-oriented designs found in many other planned developments. Nearly a third of the airport site was slated for redevelopment as public park space.
The former airport 4,700 acres (19 km2) site 10 minutes from Downtown Denver is now being redeveloped by Forest City Enterprises new urbanist project. Construction began in 2001, and as of 2008, 3,200 single-family houses, row houses, condominiums and other for-sale housing as well as 400 apartments had been built. The new community is zoned for residential and commercial development, including office parks and "big box" shopping centers. Stapleton is by far the largest neighborhood in the city of Denver and an eastern portion of the redevelopment site lies in the neighboring city of Aurora, Colorado.
Stapleton is expected to be home to some 30,000 residents in 12,000 homes, with six schools, an 80 acres (320,000 m2) central park, a light-rail station, 10,000,000 sq ft (930,000 m2). of planned office space, 1,500,000 sq ft (140,000 m2). of retail space, and 1,100 acres (4.5 km2) for parks and open space. Stapleton's 1,100 acres (4.5 km2) of open space includes the restored Sand Creek Regional Greenway and Bluff Lake Nature Center, one of the nation's largest urban wildlife refuges. Northfield Stapleton, one of the development's major retail centers, recently opened.
Read more about this topic: Stapleton International Airport