Civic Center Park gets new sod today -- and fewer fences this weekend

Civic Center Park will soon be back in shape. The city closed the park in late March, but employees are re-sodding the Broadway Terrace this afternoon. The work is expected to continue through the end of the week, and the fences surrounding the perimeter will last only through the 2012 Capitol Hill People's Fair on June 2 and 3. From there, the broad outer fences will be replaced with smaller temporary ones surrounding only the areas with new sod.

In March, the Latest Word reported that Civic Center Park was empty for the first time in months. Police officers cleared protesters from the site, which had been home to Occupy Denver since October 2011, and Parks and Recreation shuttered it for repairs. Many of those fix-ups come under the park's warranty and are updates to the construction the area previously underwent through the Better Denver Bond Project.

But one week from today, the park's future as a continued home for Occupy Denver will be less certain, even after construction is finalized. Last week, Denver City Council voted nine to four to pass the proposed urban camping ordinance, which will make it illegal for anyone to camp on city property without permission beginning May 29.

In April, officials announced the park will stay closed through mid-June. After the People's Fair, the temporary fences will remain for roughly four weeks, and they will be removed again during Pride Fest on June 16 and 17. The only remaining construction work involves additional sodding to the north and the south of the park, where repair crews recently updated irrigation paths. This will take place in July and last an additional four weeks, during which time temporary fencing will be placed around those areas.

"And from there, we'll see where the sod is at that point," Parks and Recreation representative Angela Casias says. "Soon the park will be back to its former self and open for everyone."

Civic Center Park -- along with Denver's entire Civic Center -- is currently in the running to be named a national historic landmark.

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