While Denver International was in its building stages, planners put their heads together to decide how the Stapleton site would be redeveloped. A private group of Denver civic leaders, the Stapleton Development Foundation, convened in 1990 and produced a master plan for the site in 1995, emphasizing a pedestrian-oriented design rather than the automobile-oriented designs found in many other planned developments. Nearly a third of the airport site was slated for redevelopment as public park space. It was designed as a community with the convenience of a walking town, where all the necessary elements are a stroll away.

Stapleton is actually nationally known as the largest new urbanist project in the United States. Stapleton was planned for more than 12,000 homes, 3 million square feet of regional & village retail space and 10 million square feet of office/R&D/industrial space as well as over 1,100 acres of regional parks and open space. Stapleton is by far the largest neighborhood in the city of Denver, and an eastern portion of the redevelopment site lies in the neighboring city of Aurora.   Click here for more info.