Maria Fernandez stood at the front of the room in the Sun Valley People Center, ready to make the case for a project. Gathered across five tables on a recent weeknight, around 20 of her fellow project delegates had parsed through hundreds of ideas submitted by the public that could potentially receive a share of $1 million earmarked by the city to benefit their neighborhoods in west Denver. Fernandez, 50, presented a project worth $350,000 that, if selected, would improve the Lakewood Gulch Trail by adding signage and other amenities. “We’re asking for solar lights, benches, picnic tables, trash cans, parking for bicycles, doggie waste bags,” Fernandez said in Spanish through a translator.