Lakewood's Green Mountain Plan Is Really About the Trails Nobody Built

About a third of the trail mileage on Green Mountain was never built by anyone. The concept trails plan for William F. Hayden Park counts roughly 38 miles of trail on the mountain. About 24 of those miles are maintained, and about 14 are social trails, the informal paths worn in by people walking the same line year after year.

Lakewood's 18-month planning effort for the park is now at what the city calls the 95% plan stage. Its main job is deciding what happens to those 14 miles. The headline feature is a new trail that loops the base of the mountain. The city describes that loop as the collector that would let it close social trails, which means the most visible addition and the most debated loss are one decision.

The map most people walk is bigger than the official one

The city's William F. Hayden Park plan page describes the park as more than 2,400 acres on Green Mountain and the second-largest park in Lakewood, with a summit at 6,800 feet. Most of the land was donated by or bought from the Hayden family beginning in 1972. That much is familiar. The mileage in the April 2026 concept trails plan is less familiar.

Taken together, the concept plan would grow the official, maintained network from about 24 miles to about 41. In exchange, most of the informal paths would close, along with a few miles of existing trail that would be shut or rerouted. Under this plan the mountain would end up with more trail that someone takes care of, and fewer routes that someone simply chose to walk.

These mileage figures come from the April 2026 concept. The October 95% draft is the version heading to Council. The city has confirmed in public replies that the Base Loop and the social-trail closure strategy are still in it, but it has not restated the April mileage.

The loop is the mechanism for the closures

People heard that the city planned to pave a trail around the mountain. The project team answered in its public Q&A that the Base Loop is planned as a soft-surface trail four to six feet wide, and that it is still conceptual and will need more design before anything is built. Elsewhere in the Q&A, the team says the wider loop may get a natural surface of locally sourced granite crusher fines, depending on slope, aspect and soil.

The same answer gives the loop's three purposes. It would serve as a fire buffer for residential neighborhoods, it would create what the team calls equitable access to the mountain, and it would work "as a collector trail to allow closure of social trails in ecologically sensitive areas." The team calls conservation and resource protection "one of the top priorities of this plan."

So a neighbor who reaches the mountain on an informal path behind their street would, under this design, walk to the loop and join the official network from there. Whether that works on any given block depends on where the loop runs and how close it comes to that path. That is why the loop's exact alignment, which is still conceptual, matters more to nearby residents than its total length.

The draft also sorts trail users differently. When someone asked about hiker-only trails on the north side, the project team said there are no plans for a designated hiker trail apart from the Rooney Trail. Its approach is downhill-only bike trails in strategic places, which take downhill riding off the popular summit hiking routes. One use will not change. The permitted paragliding launch area "will remain as it is today."

Where the north side disagreed

The city ran a public survey from April 15 to May 1, 2026 and received 1,678 responses. According to the summary, respondents broadly supported the Base Loop, wanted more hiker-only bypasses, and were split on downhill-bike zones and on closing social trails. A separate neighborhood survey drew 503 responses, and most of those respondents identified as hikers, walkers and runners.

The neighborhood survey summary states the split directly:

"Many neighbors described these unmaintained trails as essential neighborhood access routes that provide shorter hikes, low user conflict recreation opportunities, and important daily connections to the mountain, and expressed concern that removing them would increase congestion on remaining trails."

The same summary says many residents felt the plan favors mountain biking over hiking, equestrian use and neighborhood access. Some worried that parts of the Base Loop alignment run too close to homes. It also records a broader concern that Hayden Park is "gradually shifting away from its identity as a local neighborhood open space and becoming a larger regional recreation destination."

A different group answered differently. In a quick poll on the project page, separate from the formal surveys, 96% of 7,250 votes chose development of new trails. Two percent chose maintenance of existing trails, and 1% chose nature and resource preservation. On agreement with the plan's goals, the city's summaries report 50% to 60% of public respondents strongly agreeing that the goals were met, compared with 40% to 55% among neighborhood respondents.

Both surveys agreed on enforcement. Respondents asked the city to enforce the rules that already exist on leashes, closures, yielding and etiquette more strictly, and the neighborhood summary adds requests for clearer signs and more rangers.

Trailhead by trailhead

The plan's approach to crowding also shows at the parking lots. The April 2026 concept boards say the city would consider building more trailhead parking only when demand exceeds the capacity already there. Here is how that looks at each access point, as of the April concept:

The Utah change would make the biggest difference to a daily routine. On the April boards, the pedestrian signal across Alameda that would connect Utah to Florida is listed as recently completed. The Utah parking removal comes from the April concept, though, and the city's public replies on the October draft have not addressed it. Florida is where the requests for amenities concentrate. Public respondents asked for restrooms and water and repeatedly named Florida as the priority location for permanent restroom and water access. According to the neighborhood summary, nearby residents broadly supported dropping the Alkire parking area.

What has a date, and what does not

The draft survey closed Monday, October 19. When people pointed out that the draft survey had only one question, the project team directed further comments to [email protected]. Here is the rest of the timeline:

1. December 14. The city says the plan goes to City Council for adoption later this year. The City Council's tentative agenda items list a presentation and resolution on the William Frederick Hayden Park Master Plan at the 7 p.m. hybrid regular meeting. The page notes that dates and items are subject to change.
2. After adoption. The city describes the plan as a 10- to 20-year framework. It does not commit the city to building every recommendation, and implementation depends on funding, priorities and further design.
3. Phase 1. The project team says the phases have no set timelines because funding and resources are not in place yet. The adopted plan would be used to seek grants and partnerships for phase 1.

A short list of work could move faster than the rest. The team says in-house crews could take on these items as part of regular maintenance:

• Signage and wayfinding
• A hiker bypass trail
• Trail closures
• Trail repairs

Closures are on that list. The new Base Loop, the trailhead rebuilds and the Florida restroom all wait on outside money, while social-trail closures fall into the work the city's own crews could do. Any staffing increases called for in the phases would go through the city's annual budget process. If the north-side paths matter to your routine, the order in which this work happens is worth watching more than the total cost.

How residents reach Green Mountain is part of what a home near it offers. If you live near Hayden Park and are thinking about how changes like these could affect your plans, Petrone Properties knows Lakewood street by street and is glad to talk it through. When you want to know where your home stands, you can start with a free home valuation.