DENVER (KDVR) — The Stapleton Master Community Association (MCA) voted unanimously Wednesday afternoon to change the name of the northeast Denver neighborhood.
The neighborhood’s new name has not yet been determined. The Stapleton United Neighbors group is in the process of a community-wide outreach to gather a list of names. Once the list is narrowed down, neighborhood residents will vote on a new name.
Wednesday’s MCA meeting lasted about two hours. Questions remain as to how to cover the cost of changing signage in the area that currently reads “Stapleton.”
The neighborhood is one of the city’s newest and sits on land formerly occupied by Stapleton International Airport, which was replaced by Denver International Airport in the 1990s.
Benjamin Stapleton served as Denver’s mayor for five terms during the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s.
Stapleton was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. He was one of several politicians who helped the KKK seize control of Denver and Colorado politics during the ’20s, according to The New York Times.
Last August, Stapleton residents and business owners rejected an initiative that would have changed the neighborhood’s name.
Approximately 65% of votes were in favor of retaining the Stapleton name; the remaining 35% voted to replace it.
Of 10,550 eligible voters, 3,590 people participated — a 34% turnout.
In 2015, Black Lives Matter 5280 also pushed for the renaming of the neighborhood.