Don’t mess with our park.

That message — voiced loud and clear, repeatedly — has been delivered since last fall from opponents of a plan to transform the perimeter of a 13-acre section of Denver’s City Park into a futuristic play area.

The uproar has knocked Denver Parks and Recreation officials off their game as they scramble to save “City Loop,” the design that won a national competition two years ago.

The nearly $5 million project — intended as a regional draw on the west side of the park — remains stalled, despite city officials’ hopes to mollify opponents. It shows no sign of moving forward yet.

Parks officials and project designers will meet again Saturday morning with neighborhood group representatives and park activists.

It’s the second meeting since the city suspended project fundraising in December.

A parks spokesman said officials don’t plan to unveil reworked designs Saturday, but Councilman Albus Brooks, who represents the area and has supported City Loop, suggested there may be news out of the meeting.

He declined to elaborate.

Opponents from nearby neighborhoods and some park advocates have raised objections that include a lack of new parking in the plan, traffic concerns and skepticism that the city could afford to maintain a big new park amenity.

They’re also keenly aware that the Denver Zoo and the Museum of Nature & Science already draw huge crowds to other parts of City Park.

City Loop’s ambitious design, created by a team of Denver and Chicago firms, calls for several new clusters of sometimes-abstract playground equipment, all connected by a soft-surface path.

Replacing a small playground, the improvements would occupy a meandering 3-acre footprint, leaving green space in the center.

But where parks and rec officials see the potential for a popular destination that attracts all ages, some neighbors say it would wreck the tranquil space where they walk, run or take their kids to play.

Parks executive director Lauri Dannemiller and other officials have said they were considering alternatives, including dropping City Loop or looking for another place to put it.

Opponents who formed two overlapping groups, Stop City Loop and City Park Friends and Neighbors, see little room for negotiation.

“To reiterate: we reject City Loop,” John Van Sciver, the leader of City Park Friends and Neighbors, wrote pointedly to parks officials this week.

He added: “We wish to repair, renovate or replace Dustin Redd playground, and we would like to have what remains of City Park maintained, preserved and protected.”

Saturday’s agenda calls simply for discussion of the heated and detailed feedback City Loop boosters received at the last meeting Feb. 26 — to make sure, parks spokesman Jeff Green said, that officials understood roughly 100 attendees’ points. They also plan to talk about design principles and goals. The meeting starts at 10 a.m. at the zoo.

“My hope with the community is that if it’s ‘No’ to this, what can we say ‘Yes’ to?” said Brooks, who applauded the city’s outreach efforts on City Loop.

The 2012 competition and subsequent planning of City Loop played out in public, but Van Sciver, 68, and fellow opponent Nancy Francis, 56, say the city neglected to consult the estimated 45,000 people who live near the 320-acre park, Denver’s largest. Many didn’t realize the scope or impact until last fall.

Both sides agree on one thing: the need to fix up or replace the Dustin Redd Playground. Volunteers built the aging wooden structure on roughly 1 acre west of Duck Pond in 1996.

Crews have been working in recent weeks to make some repairs, Green said, to keep the playground safe for this year.

“Even if the decision is not to do something as far as City Loop in City Park,” he said, “there will need to be a replacement of the playground at some point.”

Jon Murray: 303-954-1405, jmurray@denverpost.com or twitter.com/denverJonMurray