A bill for an ordinance approving an Amended and Restated Service Plan for Broadway Park Metropolitan District No. 1. Approves an amended and restated service plan for Broadway Park Metropolitan District No. 1 located near Broadway and Center Avenue in Council District 7. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 12-19-17.
11 eyes. Comfortable. 1421 has passed. Next up, Councilwoman Ortega, will you put comfortable 1448 on the floor? I move that council vote 1448 be placed upon final consideration and do pass. It has been moved and second in the public hearing for council 1448 is open. May we have the staff report? Good evening. I'm I Andrew Johnson with the Department of Finance here on Council Bill 1448 to give you the staff report. It is for a service plan amendment of metropolitan district. The district was originally formed in May 2009 after approval of the district's service plan by City Council on March 9th, 2009. The district was previously named Alameda Station Metropolitan District and located on the former RTD bus barn site near the near Alameda and Santa Fe. The Alameda Station District was created in 2009 by a developer who was unsuccessful in purchasing the RTD bus Burnside. Subsequently, the RTD bus, bar and site was acquired by the same ownership group as the Denver Design District. The ownership group determined that the district at the RTD bus burn site was not no longer needed and had taken the appropriate steps, including City Council approval in June 2017 to activate the District Board and move the Metropolitan District to the Denver District. Denver Design District Site. The amended and restated service plan has been submitted for City Council approval on behalf of D4 Urban LLC pursuant to the requirements of the Special District Act. The initial project and future inclusion area to be affected by the proposed metropolitan district consists of about 25 acres generally located near Broadway and Center Avenue. Together, the areas are referred to as the service area and the district will not provide any duplicative public services or improvements in the service area. The amended and restated service plan is submitted for approval concurrently with three new metropolitan districts titled Broadway Park. Metropolitan Districts Number two. Broadway Park. Metropolitan District Number three Broadway Park. Metropolitan District number four. Together, the districts will be responsible for coordinating the financing, acquisition, construction, completion operation and maintenance of all public infrastructure and services within and without the service area, including without limitation all streets, safety, protection, water, sewer, storm drainage, transportation and park and recreation facilities. The districts will have the power to raise revenues pursuant to the authority's granted by the Special Districts Act, including the imposition of up to 50 mills plus rates, fees, tolls and charges. The total estimated cost of the public improvements necessary to provide the initial development are approximately $77,822,000. In order for the district to have the fiscal wherewithal to provide for the installation of the public improve is improvements needed is needed in the service area. The district shall have the ability to issue up to 3,000,400 304,470,000 in debt, the repayment of which is supported by the revenue generated from the imposition of up to 50 mills . The district will also have the ability to use up to ten of the 50 mills authorized to raise revenue for operation and maintenance of the rest of the district. Improvements. Approval of the Service Plant Amendment establishes the following. There is sufficient existing and projected need for organized service in the area. The existing services in the area are adequate for a president projected needs. The district is capable of economically providing sufficient service to the area within the proposed boundaries. The land and proposed development to be included as and will have the financial ability to discharge the proposed indebtedness on a reasonable basis. The facility and service standards will be compatible with the facility and service standards of the city and county of Denver. Staff recommends approval of the service plan. Also here tonight, you'll have the applicant and their representatives here to respond to any questions you might have. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. We have three individuals signed up to speak this evening. If you signed up to speak on this item, please come to the front pew. First up, we have Paula Williams. Good evening. My name is Paula Williams. I'm with the law firm of Mcgeady Becker. Our office serves as general counsel to the district that is requesting the amended and restated service plan. I'm here to answer any questions if the Council has any. Otherwise, thank you for your consideration. Thank you very much. Next up, Dan Cohen. Hello. My name is Dan Cohen. I'm the president of each of these metro districts. I also represent the underlying land ownership, and I'm here to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you. Last speaker up on this one, Chairman Sekou. Yes, Chairman Sekou. Like starting a movement for self defense representing poor, working, poor, homeless and senior citizens. Okay. Here we go. We support. This ordinance. With. Serious questions. About how this thing is going to work. Now, these metropolitan districts are very, very tricky because you start out with the process of how does the governing board constitute itself ? That's one. All right. And then what is the agenda of that board as it goes about the process of doing the project? Now, Councilman Clark has awesome responsibility on the oversight of all of this because this is primarily your district. All right. And the success of it is going to be dependent upon the teamwork that's created. So there's some of these things that we talk about actually getting manifested, for instance, from way. We're talking about opportunities for women, minority contractors, small businesses that are key component to making this thing work because here's a great opportunity to practice that process as you corrected some things that were inequities so that people can move forward with the possibility out of this SBA thing of actually getting some graduates out the process where they begin to perform on a level playing field. What major follow because that's the purpose of the program, is not to keep them small, it's not to keep them down. They're scrambling for the crumbs of 22 to 23% while the traditional folks get to 80. We're talking about the male dominated industry. We've got to begin to continue to level the playing field so that we get to a 5050 love. I mean, come on here. And we can do that because the standards have to be accelerated and upward mobility and ask ourselves the primary question, can we do better than this? And then refuse to settle for anything less than the best that we can do for the citizens. Because if we're not about that, why are we here? So. So we cannot accept mediocrity. That is criminal. Especially when we can do better. And with the skills that we have with folks and the unknown folks, us doing this thing because everybody bad passes up the real true soldiers in the background who have the experience from city councils before then that are helping new folks move this thing down the road. So we've got some serious players like. Mary Beth. Yeah. For real? For real. You know. And since he looks like he's just years, he has that grandmotherly look, you know, and she's going to be kind to everybody, but she knows how to push it forward. And she has that grimacing smile. But she really wants to just fall out of a chair because she don't believe I'm saying this, but she's outstanding player. And then, of course, you got the technical expertize here with the experience. All right. And we're talking about folks that know how to dot the I's and cross the T's and present this in a way so that the mayor can accept his. So, yeah, we're talking Robin, commuters do an outstanding job with that because no matter how bad, I want to push it forward to do other things. She recognizes gravitas, which is functioning well and can couch that in a way that pushes the mayor to be transparent and to do what's necessary to make this thing happen. So we want to thank you very much for the work that you put in with this. All right. Because you're doing an outstanding job and you've been there and doing this for a long, long time. People don't know how really good an attorney you really are. And as you work with the city attorneys and you question some of the ideas and whatnots and interpretations to give them a pause to go, Hmm, maybe, maybe not, then that's what we need. And continue on doing that great work. You're outstanding with that. And then last but not least. We're looking at a couple of things. One include the police safety aspect and budget for the state. It's huge and it's going to require that and we're going have to factor that in. So they're going to have to have the adequate manpower to make this thing work. Second of all, we've talked about the composition of the board. I have questions about this and maybe you can share with us how you how you select the people on there and who's making that all happen, because poor people would like to be at the table when the policies are made. So we make sure that we're included in the decisions at some level, at some aspect. We need to be in this because it's about the entire city and we're all going to utilize that transportation hub. And so last but not least, we talked about economic opportunities for subcontractors and minority folk, creating bigness and greatness and graduating from the program. And last but not least, jobs, jobs before people enrolling them in the process, lifting up the bottom of the social stratum from the bottom up with foot soldiers on the ground helping to do every aspect of this thing because we have something the young ain't got. We got time, we got energy, and we're willing to put it forth to make this city great. And with our contribution that we make to this thing and you add that with all the other partners, we got all the necessary ingredients to make this thing work so this don't have to be a aggravating situation. Is atomistic self determination. And we're ready to go. On any given. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Your time is up. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. That concludes our speakers. Are there any questions for members of council? Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. Pro tem. I have a couple of questions. The first is for Andrew Johnson. Andrew When we are looking at the creation of special districts, do we at all look at them in the same way that, for example, Dora looks at TIFF? Because this is this is using a city finance tool, if you will, to assist development in being able to offset the cost of their infrastructure. So do we look at them in a way of how we address issues like affordable housing? And tell me how we do that. Sure. And so metropolitan districts are a state authorized entity. And so once created the they come to the local municipality here is for city council to authorize their service plan. It is a financing tool and so it is a tool for financing infrastructure, public infrastructure and maintaining said infrastructure in the public right away. It also is here to support additional services as set out by state statute within the the state statutes. And one of those is include additional security. It does not call out in specific affordable housing, though, if that was where you were trying to go with this line of questioning. So under the creation by the state does not address affordability of housing in any way, shape or form, is what you're saying. That is a true statement. Okay. I would like to ask Dan Cohen, if you wouldn't mind coming to the microphone. So I was looking at one of the documents you have here, and it looks like the the phasing and the build out. And let me let me make sure I understand the geography. So it's basically from Alameda to the I-25, right? It's actually Broadway to Santa Fe. It's actually starts closer to Center Avenue and then move South Side 25, bounded by Broadway on the east side and the RTD light rail on the west side. Okay. So it's it's really the southern half of about the southern half of the Denver Design District General Development Plan area. Okay. And when Andrew first started talking, he talked about the RTD bus barn. So does this also include the old RTD bus barn property? It does not. It does not. And council took an action to basically allow one of these districts to move from the RTD bus barn site to the the area that they're currently covering, which is the southern portion of it. So your full buildout looks like it goes to roughly 2040. Is that correct? At this point in time, that's our best estimation of of when the build out will occur. Yes. So I want to ask you a question, because you and I had a conversation quite some time ago encouraging you to look at a development called REO in Montgomery County, Maryland. I don't know if you remember this, but this is a development that is very unique, which is pretty much at the end of the red line. Those of you who are familiar with Montgomery County, where, you know, a manmade lake was built and all the rest of the development kind of surrounds that. And it is a magnet for communities that live all around there. They go there on weekends for, you know, entertainment, meals, work out. There's a movie complex there. There's big box retail, tons of housing, some hotels. And I know you all have big visions for high density with this site, which is, as I've heard, the scale of lower downtown or Cherry Creek. Right. Roughly in terms of geographic area. Yes. Right. So I'm just curious, did you ever look at that? Yes, I did. Have you ever been there? I have not personally been there, but I did look at it and and, you know, looking at the Broadway station area plan and other small area plans that govern this area as well as the GDP, this is likely to be higher density in nature. And specifically. The uses within these districts are contemplated as primarily being commercial, being located at at Broadway and 25. Yeah, I guess we have unique opportunities to do placemaking where we have large parcels of land within the city. You know, as we've known, we've been a landlocked city for a long time and few opportunities like this to be able to look at placemaking, that becomes a magnet not just for Denver but for the metropolitan area also . And so I was just curious to know how how much you really explored that potential model? Yes, we have and we absolutely have a plethora of placemaking ideas that will be part of this development. The metro district will be involved in that as well. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Councilwoman. See no other questions. The public hearing for Accountable 1449 is closed. Are there any comments by members of council? Councilman Espinosa. I don't know if this is. I'm sorry. I don't know if this is where that line of questioning was going, but I've seen the presentation in and. And quite frankly, the 2040 build out is is a lot underwhelming. And, you know, it's just recreation of city blocks. It's doing some things. And it's sort of not. It's to me, sort of one of the missed opportunities we did as long as Lake Right. Is we just took down in a big, huge hospital. We created a street grid and started selling off the parcels to sort of generic developers to build blocks. And, you know, nothing wrong with the grid because it's a very effective tool for managing the city and warehousing people and jobs and things like that. But yeah, I this is coming this is coming from somebody who's just now concluding the Central Platte Valley vision plan and potential rezonings and placemaking and capturing, you know, you know, doing something, being thoughtful about what it is that we're sort of and what we're initiating when we're doing this is very much integrated in all of that conversation. And hopefully it carries on with a master developer. And that that is that is completely apparent as things move forward. And I'm saying all this because when I first got into office, I had the 2015 and 17 Denver Post property owner coming to me with something is, is, is, you know, something that I said essentially the same thing, which is, you know, you've been sitting on this property for a really long period of time and the best you can do is this. And and this is too valuable of, you know, in that case, their views of downtown and of the mountains and everything. There's just too many assets there and too much potential to overlook. And I was glad that they actually took that to heart, came back with a complete revisioning of their proposal, reusing of the repurposing of the Denver Post site as opposed to actually tearing it down. This site is not unlike that. I mean, there has been some visioning that has gone on south from the in the master development, I mean, planning of the area south of this this area. And they're cognizant that they have incredible mountain views to the west and incredible downtown views to the north. And, you know, I hope that we don't just recognize that, you know, one era allowed us to do big box retail and wear and masses of parking. And that era has now gone. And now we're capitalizing on the next sort of movement in, you know, generic retail development. And that's what I because that's what it looks like. And so Denver is a place that, you know, where all the great places are, are, are largely desired and being capitalized on, whether it's Northwest Denver or Cherry Creek. And we're building new ones like Reno. And this is an area that, you know, has enough land area and and access and proximity to amenities and proximity to all the things that make Denver great, that it could actually build off of that. So I hope that's part of it. That's obviously and just opining it because I can it's not going to affect the fact that, yes, this is the right tool for the job. But, you know, when I just have higher expectations as we move forward on these sorts of scale of projects, things. Thank you, Councilman. I just want to clarify, I may have said I was closing the public hearing on 1449, which is next. I meant 1448 to clarify which one we're closing and moving on, I just want to thank all of you for all of your work on this with all the moving pieces and the former bus Barton site, this is an exciting piece of property that has already seen one era of redevelopment and is now looking towards the long term future. It's exciting to start seeing things happening sooner than anticipated because of the long term leases that are on the property. So I want to thank the city team for all the work in getting this put together. I'm excited about the opportunity for infrastructure and these metropolitan districts and I think Dan and your team, for all of your engagement with the community over multiple years and I'm sure more years to continue as this really exciting site starts to take shape and continue to take shape. Very happy to support this today and hope all of my colleagues will as well. So with that, Madam Secretary, please roll call. Black. Hi, Espinosa. Hi. Gilmore I Herndon High. Cashman High. Can eat. Lopez I knew. Ortega I assessment. Mr. President. Madam Secretary, please close the voting. Announce the results. 11 Eyes. 11 Eyes. Constable 1448 has passed. Councilwoman Ortega, will you please put Council Bill 1449 on the.