Golden’s population grew 65% between 1940 and 1950--many of the residents being returning soldiers from World War II, enrolling at the School of Mines. There was no place for the new residents to live–few apartments and even fewer available houses. The School of Mines didn’t offer dorms or married student housing until well after the war.
Trailers were an ideal solution to the problem. They were comfortable, private, and affordable. They could be moved to available locations, and they could be packed in efficiently. For several years after the war, Steinhauer Field House and Brooks Field were both used as parking spaces for student trailers. Some homeowners allowed campers to park in their yards--the ADUs of the day.
Before the War, Golden had one trailer park, located at 22nd and Jackson Street. It had started in the 1920s, offering both tourist cabins and camping spots. After the War, spots in that park were in great demand.
Soon, other parks were developed. Golden had just passed zoning regulations in 1949, and people weren’t sure how trailer parks fit into the new zoning...were they commercial or residential? Trailers parks were highly profitable ventures, so developers were eager to build them wherever they could buy land. They were generally asking for zoning changes and sometimes asking to be annexed into the city.
Both the County Commissioners (for unincorporated areas) and Golden City Council were eager to facilitate the developments: we were critically in need of housing, and the projects were generally going on vacant land, so they would generate some property tax where before there had been almost none. The development proposals poured in.
Golden Area Mobile Home Parks:
1924 – Golden City Tourist Park at 22nd and Jackson (pre-war)
1948 – Landon Hill Trailer Park (14835 W. Colfax)
1948 – Perry Trailer Camp at 215 Cheyenne
1953 – Golden Trailer Park, Ford Street at Clear Creek
1955 – Skyline Motel and Motor Court – 17190 S. Golden Rd
1956 – Mountain Edge Court at 16100 S. Golden Road
1960 – Unnamed park at 17190 Mt. Vernon Road
1961 – Unnamed park at 1492 Isabell Street
1961 – Pleasant View Park at 15150 S. Old Golden Road
1961 Mountain Sides Mobile Home Estates, Hwy 6 and 40 at Ulysses
By 1961, both the County and City governments were becoming uneasy at the way trailer parks were taxed. They felt that they weren’t paying enough to cover fire and police protection, water and sewer. They thought the schools were over-crowded, as were the roads, and began to feel (and say) that denser housing with lower tax rates weren’t a good deal for the city. Nevertheless, the proposals still poured in. The parks that were already in place wanted to expand.
The nature of the developers was changing. The 1950s-era parks in Pleasant View were smaller and had private owners who generally lived on site. The projects coming to Golden in the 1960s were big projects financed by remote corporations that owned multiple projects.
Golden Area Mobile Home Parks (cont'd):
1962 East Tincup Park
1962 Unnamed Park at W. 9th St. and DeFrame
1962 Mountain View Mobile Home Park at 10403 W. Colfax
1965 – Table Mountain Court, 16390 West 44th Avenue
1965 – Hide Away Hills – 431 Zeta St.
1966 – Wide Acres Village – 1300 Isabell
By the time Golden Terrace Mobile Home Village (17601 W. Colfax) was proposed, in 1969, the issue was becoming increasingly contentious. The project itself was not bad; it just came along at a time when both citizens and city officials had reached the saturation point. They decided they had enough of a good thing.
57 Years Ago
The Golden Terrace project came to City Council in April of 1969. The developers were requesting PUD zoning for an adults-only park of 264 units.
"We plan a nice looking park with a recreation center, swimming pool, trees, shrubbery and sodding,” Wolff said. “We’re also going to limit it to an average of 2.5 persons per unit." Bill Henderson of Denver, an associate of Wolff’s in Golden Terrace who is also part owner and operator of a similar complex in Aurora, said he could guarantee there would be no school children. He said there was a great demand for mobile home housing from retired on semi-retired people who would be taxpayers requiring almost no services from the city. Henderson added the Aurora park is 100 percent full of this type of residents, and he saw no reason why this couldn’t work the same way in Golden Terrace.
(The developer emphasized "no school children" to demonstrate that the project would not put a burden on the over-crowded school system.)
The Transcript estimated that more than 90 residents attended the meeting. Council approved the project 8 to 1.
The dissenting Councilor explained, “I don't believe trailers pay their fair share of the tax burden, and Golden has already done more than its fair share of accepting trailer housing within the county. “
The Mayor remarked, "I wish everybody could afford a $15-20,000 home. Unfortunately they can’t. We also have to consider people with limited incomes who find it hard to buy homes in Golden. Mobile homes could give them the chance to benefit communities such as ours."
The spokesman for a dissenting group of residents explained,
WE FEEL THE increased population of a trailer park of this size would increase the need for additional fire and police protection, adding additional costs to the other Golden residents.... WE FEEL GOLDEN has enough trailer parks within its city limits. With this addition Golden and Pleasant View will have 1,089, or 55 percent of the trailer sites in the county. We feel that Golden will suffer rather drastically because we will have an image of being a trailer city. While we are not saying trailer parks are undesirable, we are saying the excessive number of trailer sites within the Golden area will damage Golden’s very real potential for development of quality home building. Angell said there is no real assurance that Wolff will be able to keep his promise of no school children in the development, nor any assurance that when Wolff sells the park the new owner will honor this commitment. He also said that they didn’t believe trailer parks contribute their fair share of taxes, using figures he said showed trailers pay only about 30 percent of what a single family residential unit pays for occupying the same property or acreage.
The City Manager said, "he did not believe additional fire and police personnel would be needed since they would only be required to respond to calls from the private property, and police would not be required to patrol it as in regular residential areas."
Golden Terrace has grown considerably since its original 264 units. It currently includes 654 homes. It still offers a pool, a clubhouse, and onsite management. It welcomes all ages.
