For nearly six decades, children have been squealing with glee as they glide down the Giant Rainbow Slide at speeds of more than 47 mph. But like many development projects in Estes Park, Fun City, located at 455 Prospect Village Dr., has had its share of controversy over the years.
Lynn Kinnie developed the park in 1969 on the site of what had been Cowboy Golf, a frontier-themed mini golf course that opened in June 1959 by partners Harold Alps and William Morton.
When Fun City opened, it was situated on 1.7 acres. In 1973, Kinnie purchased 14 additional acres for a mixed use residential, commercial, and recreational development that he envisioned would include a bowling alley, Ferris wheel, children’s helicopter ride, paddle boat ride, go-cart track, food and beverage outlet, merry-go-round, bumper car ride, ice skating rink, a fishing pond, and additional amusement rides.
The Estes Park Accommodations Association approved Kinnie’s expansion plans. In a written statement, the board stated, “We support him in his rezoning attempt for the five-acre tract of land known as Mills Pond tract. If Estes Park is to meet the ever-increasing competition from other tourist areas in Colorado, we must have development of attractive tourist activities in our own area.”
Additionally, the board wrote, “Accommodations owners in Estes Park represent a great total dollar investment in the community. We thus pay a large amount of property taxes and collect a large percentage of sales taxes. We also have much to lose if Estes Park should become unattractive to outside visitors. We therefore must support the development of projects which we feel will be good additions to our community.”
Kinnie’s plans met with opposition. Gerry Swank, who lived on East Riverside Drive, spoke out against the proposed rezoning plan on the basis that Fun City would provide “a way for people to use their money five times faster and the result would be to reduce the amount of money which would go toward food and lodging.”
Swank said the development would compete with accommodations owners. “We don’t need this type of thing in Estes Park. People don’t come to this area for this kind of thing.”
Goldie Bezold, who also lived on East Riverside Drive, did not want the area to “go the same way as Spur 66,” referring to strip development. “I know there is a place for this, but the place is not a mountain community,” Bezold argued.
Calling the area a “little Coney Island” that was “as desolate as the Gobi Desert,” Bezold claimed Kinnie had “denuded the land of every blade of native grass, shrub, wildflower, small evergreen trees, etc.”
Other area residents were concerned the expansion would be a blight on the Town and contrary to its Development Plan.
Another critic, M.B. Holt, Jr., said, “While Mr. Kinnie appears to be a successful operator of his existing amusement area and may bear the welfare of the community in mind, there can be no assurance that his amusement operations will not pass into the hands of less conscientious persons. Once the area is zoned for expanded amusement purposes, any kind of amusement equipment can be installed by either the present or future owners, whether unsightly, noisy, or otherwise objectionable.”
At the time Fun City was first built, it was located outside the Town limits. In order to get Town water, Kinnie had to petition for annexation to rezone the property to C2 from R1 and R2.
Kinnie also had to assure Town leaders that Fun City would not create a “honkey tonk” atmosphere in Estes Park. “I would fuss as strong as an Irishman knows how to show that this proposal will not contribute to ‘honky tonk,’” Kinnie asserted.
The Board of Directors of the Estes Valley Improvement Association, which had supported the Town’s Development Plan, opposed the proposed expansion.
“If this plan is ignored and changed at this time, especially to accommodate commercial expansion of questionable nature, a very bad precedent will be established. Anyone desiring a further change in the plan for any purpose could always point to this precedent in support of their proposal,” wrote Carl Holmgren, president of the association, in a letter to the Estes Park town Boad and the Larimer County Commissioners.
“The Estes Valley will best be served by developing and maintaining high grade facilities which will provide a restful and different atmosphere from that found in many other tourist-oriented areas,” Holmgren added.
The Estes Park Planning Commission unanimously rejected the expansion plans in January 1974. The Town Board then denied the project because of two legal technicalities. A power of attorney assignment did not include the legal description of the property, and an annexation map did not properly list the names of both Crags and East Riverside Drives.
In April 1974, Kinnie and his wife Dorothy sold the shopping center across the street from Fun City to Jim and Nancy Swickard, who reamed the property Picadilly Square. Kinnie announced plans for a 15-acre mixed-use residential, commercial, and “high quality” retail development that would be called Mill Pond Center. Those plans were never realized.
In 1975, the Town approved the annexation of what was named the Kinnie Addition and a Pizza Hut, now the Sweet Basilico Café, was built in 1978.
Three years later, in a five-to-two vote, the planning commission gave approval to Kinnie for a go-cart tract. However, after a two-and-a-half-hour hearing, the Town Board rejected the plan in a four-to-two vote.
Kinnie attempted several other times to get approval to develop his property but was met with rejection by the Town Board.
In 1984, the Estes Park Urban Renewal Authority proposed plans for the removal and redevelopment of the amusement park. In its place, they proposed a 100,000 to 125,000 square foot community retail complex with a high-end restaurant, entertainment facility, grocery store, additional retail shops, and offices. After a year of inaction, the approval of the plan was rescinded.
Again in 1987, Kinnie attempted to develop Fun City by adding a spiral slide next to the rainbow slide, but the plan was assailed for creating an “amusement alley.”
Steve Komito, a member of the Planning Commission at the time, called the slide a “plastic obscenity.”
Despite controversies, objections, and a court ruling, Fun City managed to add a go-cart track in the 1990s, followed by bumper boats, bumper cars, a bungee trampoline, water walking balls, and gemstone panning.
Curiously, in 1993, as Kinnie pursued approval of his go-cart track, he suggested that he was considering dismantling the slide, which he said was “getting along in years.”
Following Kinnie’s death in 2006 at the age of 80, his son Lon took over as the owner and manager of Fun City. Lon, who also owned the Estes Park Health Club and Lonigans Irish Grill and Pub, sold Fun City to Greg Davis and Kevin Braun in 2017, a year before his death in 2018. He was 67.
Davis and Braun will usher in the newest chapter of Fun City this spring with the addition of their new figure-8 spinning roller coaster. Let the squeals begin.