Correction: This article previously referred to Dan Bullock as the chair of the Tree Board. Lisa Paige is now chair of the Tree Board.
Chacos Park, located at 4th and Main Street, is host to many Carbondale events throughout the year, including First Friday pop-ups and summer farmers’ markets. For many years, the land was leased to the Town for these purposes. In late 2021, the parcel was anonymously donated to Carbondale along with the Town Center properties, all previously tied to the Melvin and Bren Simon Foundation. This granted the opportunity to dream up a downtown park named in honor of the late Chris and Terry Chacos, founders of the Village Smithy restaurant in 1975. The Chacos are credited with early efforts to beautify and enliven Main Street.
Back in May of 2025, Carbondale’s Board of Trustees approved a $200,000 contract with re:LAND as the primary consultant to complete construction documents for the redevelopment of this park and the plaza across the street. At that meeting, Dan Bullock, vice chair of the Tree Board, made it known he felt public outreach was insufficient. Shortly after, Meredith Bullock, a member of the Historic Preservation Commission and Dan’s wife, reached out to The Sopris Sun to share the same concerns.
Meredith missed the public engagement opportunities and was concerned that certain boards and commissions — namely the Bikes, Pedestrian and Trails Commission, Environmental Board, Historic Preservation Commission, Latino Advisory Board and Public Arts Commission — were not directly approached for input as the schematic design was being drafted.
The Sopris Sun followed up with re:LAND principal and owner Nicholas DiFrank and Parks and Recreation Director Eric Brendlinger for clarification. As noted by the Bullocks, there was no public open house in the traditional sense. Rather, a six-question survey lived online and on-site inside a red telephone booth donated by DiFrank to Carbondale Arts. On First Friday, December 2023, 113 responses to one question were collected at a booth kicking off the process — “What is the most important feature or function for the Town to consider during the planning and design of Chacos Park?”
The online survey yielded about 30 responses. All in all, around 200 responses were collected to the six questions, documented in the master plan appendix. According to Brendlinger, this method was encouraged by Town staff, despite it straying from the initial request for proposals (RFP) guidelines. The $28,510 contract to formulate a master plan was awarded to re:LAND on Aug. 23, 2023 and did not include a survey.
“It’s great to have that option and not be stuck to a certain prescribed method,” Brendlinger said of adapting the process and not adhering strictly to the RFP. “We did adapt it to the results we were seeing. We adapted it to what else was going on in town. I really felt and other community members felt that there was a master plan burnout. We were right in the middle of the MAP project, we were in the middle of the Town Center project, we were also starting our pool project and the first capital campaign the Town has ever gone into.”
Beyond the 7,500-square-foot park, DiFrank noted, the scope of the master plan also expanded to encompass the 4th Street plaza. With movable bollards to block traffic, the master plan has the square easily transforming into a festival street, or “woonerf” (a Dutch design concept), he described.
“I feel like we already had part of this master plan written,” Brendlinger said, simply by satisfying the existing needs of the park. The design accounts for 26 vendor stalls during markets, for example, and designated space for the winter ice rink. A permanent raised platform will function as an ADA-accessible stage during events and a place to play and sit in other moments.
In addition to the survey and First Friday canvassing, re:LAND received guidance from a steering committee consisting of Charlie Chacos, Bob Ezra, Eric Mitchell, Jamie Abbott, Sue Zislis, Talya Dornbush and Steve Standiford. This group met four times and the master plan was publicly reviewed by the Parks and Recreation Commission as well as the Board of Trustees several times ahead of approval. The Chacos family was also consulted at the very beginning of the process.
DiFrank called the steering committee “an awesome mosaic” of community leaders representing different areas of focus. An artistic element that emerged from these meetings is a hummingbird motif decorating the shade structure in memory of Chris Chacos, who was often compared with that busybody of a bird, constantly zipping around.
Still, Meredith insisted that engaging other Town boards and commissions would have resulted in a better outcome. “The landscape plan allows sufficient unpaved root space only for small trees, not the medium and large trees on the final schematic drawings,” she wrote. “Larger trees planted under these conditions will grow as large as their roots will allow — at least double the size of their canopy — and then decline when they cannot mature.”
DiFrank, who is also chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission, assured that his firm specializes in landscape architecture and is employing the necessary techniques to help future trees thrive at Chacos Park. He said there are very few foundational elements which would obstruct root growth.
One element DiFrank admitted is controversial is the inclusion of a seasonal splash pad water feature. This would necessarily utilize potable water (to be sanitary), which could then be reused to irrigate the park and The Launchpad lawn next door. The feature was requested in several public comments, having been removed from the new Aquatics Facility down the street. Its inclusion was “very thoughtful and very well calculated,” DiFrank said.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bought nachos over in Willits because of the water play in Triangle Park,” he continued. “It brings kids who bring their parents who stay, who want to go buy a cheeseburger, buy a slice of pizza, who hang out and bring that energy.”
Brendlinger shared that the Master Plan design (www.bit.ly/Chacos-plan) will inform the construction documents, but modifications may still be made according to funding and other factors. He invited the community to continue giving input. The Historic Planning Commission, Public Arts Commission and Tree Board will each be asked to weigh in as the construction documents are drafted.
The estimated cost given in November 2024 for the design was $2,883,985, increasing 7% annually with projected inflation. Attempts to obtain a grant from the Land and Water Conservation Fund were unsuccessful. DiFrank revealed that applying for that grant inflated costs because of certain requirements like using American-made steel. The Town is now looking toward Great Outdoors Colorado — state grants using lottery proceeds — as a possible funding source. The first work to get done will be undergrounding power lines, a cost covered by Xcel Energy.
As a father of two with every intention of remaining in Carbondale, DiFrank is proud of the plan they’ve come up with and is honored to work on such a central and lasting project. He explained how the team of firms working on the construction documents is mostly local, with people who live and work and have families here. “I don’t think any one of these groups would want to put anything less than amazing into the heart of Carbondale,” DiFrank remarked. “I know a lot of us have put extra time, off hours, into assuring this thing we get to put into town is exemplary, to say the least.”
Parks and Recreation will soon undergo a 10-year master plan process. The public should be on the look-out for more engagement opportunities on the horizon.