A bill for an ordinance approving Service Plans for the creation of West Globeville Metropolitan District No. 1 and West Globeville Metropolitan District No. 2, relating to the redevelopment project known as the 25/70 Development. (FINANCE & SERVICES) Approves the service plans of two state-authorized metropolitan districts: West Globeville Metropolitan District No. 1 and West Globeville Metropolitan No. 2 both in Council District 9. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 2-9-16.
And when the LED right red light appears, your time is up. Speakers must stay on the topic of the hearing and direct their comments to the council members. Speakers are prohibited from using profanity or making personal attacks during their comments, and we've asked speakers and audience members to refrain from applauding. All right. We're going to speak on Council Bill 79. Councilman Clark, would you please put Council Bill 79 on the floor? Thank you, Mr. President. I remove the council bill 79 be placed upon final consideration and do pass. It has been moved and seconded. Public hearing on Council Bill 79 is now open. May we have the staff report? And even John Carter with the Department of Finance Constable's 160079 is an ordinance to approve to service plans for metropolitan districts supporting the redevelopment of the former Denver Post building sites at Southwest Intersection of I-25 and I-70. The service plans are being submitted on behalf of Ascendent Capital Partners DNA LLC pursuant to the requirements of Special District Act and related state statute. The redevelopment of the redevelopment area of the proposed district consists of 41 acres. More specifically, the boundaries are West 40, West 43rd Avenue to the South, Fox Street to the east. The Southern Pacific Railroad tracks to the west and Interstate 70 to the north. The site is intended to develop into a high density total development near the light rail station at 47th and Fox. Opening later this year. The District should be responsible for coordinating the financing, acquisition, acquisition, construction and operation and maintenance of the public infrastructure and services within and around the project site. In order to provide these improvements as services to districts will be created. West Globeville Metropolitan District One is anticipated to contain single family residential properties, as well as commercial and retail components of the Division of the Development. The rest, Globeville Metropolitan District number two, is anticipated to contain multi-family residential properties. The districts will partner with one another, provide the public services and improve this needed for the development. Each of the districts will have the power to raise revenues pursuant to the authorities of the granted by the Special District Act, including through the imposition of no levies, rates, fees, tolls and charges. Initially, the boundaries of each district will be de minimis, with the majority of the 41 acre development property being located within a specific inclusion area. It is anticipated that the portions of the inclusion area will be included into boundaries of districts. Once the public improvements are installed and development proceeds with the service area of the two districts may overlap. The districts will not be overlap. I'm sorry. While the service area of the two districts may overlap, the districts will not overlap physical boundaries, nor will the districts be overlapping, providing duplicate services or improvements. So in order for the districts to have financial capacity for providing self-isolation of the public improvements required for the development, the district shall have the combined ability to issue up to up to $22,785,000 in debt. The repayment of the debt will be supported by revenue generated from the imposition of a mill levy of up to 50 mills . Council's approval of two service plans would establish the following. There are sufficient existing and projected need for organized services in the area, and the existing services in the area is inadequate to meet those needs today. The districts are capable of providing economical and sufficient service to the area within the proposed boundaries. The areas to be included in the districts will have the financial ability to discharge the proposed debt on a reasonable basis. The facility and services standards will be compatible with the city standards. The districts have a proposed have proposed an organization in TABOR election for May of this year as required by state law, pending approval by the eligible electors in each of the districts in the in May of this election this year. The districts will have the authority to operate in a manner described in the present as service plans. City staff recommends approval of these service plans, and we're happy to answer some questions. I want to introduce you to a few of the development team here. We have Zach Kessler and Graham Bennett banished from the developer team. Brad Nieman from Miller and Associates is the developers counsel and Rachel Prestige from Sierra Associates. Rapid asked your questions about the development or or the judges. Thank you, Mr. Gardner. All right, we have five speakers, and I'll just say our five. You can make your way to the front pew. Brad Nyman, Graham Bean is that Texan, Mr. Sekou and Nathan Burger. So make your way to the front. And Mr. Nyman, I apologize if I said that wrong. Nieman. That's one of those too. You can begin a master. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. City Council. It's Brad Neiman from Miller Associates. I'll be very brief here. I am here on behalf of the proponents of the West called Metropolitan District Numbers one two. And I just wanted to state for the record that notice of this public hearing has been provided in accordance with applicable law, namely Kress. 32 1204. I'm here with Graham Bennis and Zach Kessler on behalf of the property owner and developer, as well as Rachel Prestwich as a consultant of the developer as well. And we're available if you have any questions. Thank you. Thank you. Graham Bennett. My wishes for. To answer questions. I don't have any. Thank you. That text. That tax of 4535 Julian Street, Denver, Colorado. The city decided to clear city homeless camps from Arapahoe Square just as developers ask for new zoning and design standards for Arapahoe Square. What a coincidence. How many of the homeless will end up in West Globeville, Metropolitan District one in West Globeville Metropolitan District two? But of course, we're told that this is occurring because of potential health and safety emergency. They don't explain why this emergency just developed or why it will be any less if they simply drive the homeless someplace else. And once again, where will the homeless be driven into Globeville and our other neighborhoods? Will the developers be taxed to pay for the dislocations they're causing and the potential negative impacts on Globeville and other neighborhoods? Of course not. Once again, the developers say jump and the city asks How high? The city should be ashamed of itself. But hey, what's new? Thank you, Mr. TEXT. Mr. Secretary. My name is Jeremy Sekou. I am the. Organization Founder CEO, the Black Star Action Movement for Self-defense. Representing poor, working poor and homeless people. We are supporting the. Passing of this. Metropolitan District. With reservation. On the surface, this appears to be a wonderful thing. And we're moving forward to develop this area that has been neglected by the city for a long period of time. And the people have now stood up and decided that they're going to do it themselves and they're going to pay for it. Now, a lot of people don't know how these metropolitan industry works. So you move into this thing, you get this house and you get a tax bill and you don't even know nothing about the military on this thing because most people don't understand how this thing works. And there hasn't been a lot of education on how these metropolitan districts work. And there's a downside to these things when you click it up becomes self-serving. Community input is denied. And community control over this development. It's done by a few. For the many. And in the process there is no oversight by city council. To stay focused on its development. And so it gets to be real serious looking wicked. And so the people who are watching this tonight, I suggest on television. That you do independent research and find out how this thing works and then engage in the process of participating. And getting active and making this thing work. See, I know we're in a we live in a republic and it's not a democracy. And the people have been pushing it forward to get it to that democratic process. And yet the still tools are still in effect. So that as Cosmo was talking about a revolutionary change, this is not even revolutionary change. This is just the same old, same old with the same old players playing. And then those that got get and those that don't, don't. So I am demanding that city council sit on top of this on a follow up to make sure they do the right thing for the right reason. And represent the people in a way that will give them faith that this thing is for everybody and not a few. In closing, I like to say that my grandchildren are now begin the process of watching this on television. Mr. Sekou, your 3 minutes is up, sir. Thank you, sir. And have a good day. Thank you. Next, we have Nathan Burger. Nathan Burger. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Nathan Burgher 201 Steel Street. Suite 201 Denver. 80206 And I represent a special district that has been providing water and sewer services in and near the Globeville area for over 50 years. We got a notice of this meeting. I don't know why we got a notice, but we are the ones that provide water and sewer for the inhabitants within our boundaries. And we would object to any other entity that would think they would come into our boundaries and provide water and sewer. That's the only issue I have that doesn't look from looking at it. It doesn't look like it's within the boundaries. But we got a notice. So I'm just and I wrote a letter to council just to make it clear we are not consenting if there is any water and sewer services to be provided within our boundaries. We are the district that would provide that and it couldn't be done without our consent and we would not agree to any service plan that would share those types of services. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our speakers. Now time for questions of members of council. Councilwoman, can each. Thank you, Mr. President. With the city staff to address the notice issue that just came up from our speaker in terms of whether or not you've examined the overlapping boundary potential. Thank you, Councilmember Brennaman, once again. We provided a resort a in overlapping report from the county assessor's office seeking any overlapping special districts in the boundaries of the proposed districts. In addition to any districts within a three mile radius of the districts of the proposed district west levels one and two. And it is that three mile radius report that may have. I'm not sure exactly what which water and sanitation district Mr. Burger was representing, but I know that it involved the I believe, the North Washington Water and Sanitation District, and there's a Pecos North Pecos one as well. Those there are no overlapping water sanitation districts, as far as I am aware, based upon the reports that I received from the Denver assessor's office and the the notice that Mr. Burger may have received or did receive was based upon that three mile radius report. Great. Thank you very much. And then, Gram, can I ask you a question, please? I won't ask you whether or not you feel that the council has provided you constant attention, as one of our speakers suggested. But I will ask you if you could please share what efforts you've made around the topic of affordable housing exploring that topic. During the process you've been going through the past few months. Yes. Thank you, Councilman Creech. Your pregnancy is a lot more because we still have a lot of work to do on our project. But yes, we have made considerable outreach to the affordable housing community, and we are very well schooled in affordable housing. And, you know, we're very committed to pursuing affordable housing on the site, and we are very excited about the opportunities that we are seeing an interest from affordable housing developers that will be doing the vertical development once we get through our steps with the horizontal development and obviously with a big step being tonight with the infrastructure improvements . And that's a big step for the the vertical developers for us to have infrastructure and especially a nice four acre park for the project as well as our rezonings that we'll need for the remaining 30 acres. That which is why you'll be seeing us a few more times and that those rezonings obviously will, will, you know, follow our GDP with, you know, mix of uses of commercial and residential. And so we look forward to continuing to explore as well as detail our plans that were that we have and and the interest that we have for affordable housing developers. Thank you. Thank you, counsel. We can count on you to tell you. Mr. Berger, I think you might be the best one for me to ask my questions up, if you wouldn't mind coming back to the microphone. Now, Mr. Berger. What is the exact name of the water and sewer district that you represent? North Washington Street Water and Sanitation District. And it's independent of Denver water in our Denver wastewater system, correct? Well, we work we get our water from Denver water, and it goes through our system and we work with Denver. In fact, we just what raised the issue was we just included a part of Denver based upon an agreement with Denver wastewater on an Asarco redevelopment project. And this is nearby. So I was a little concerned about overlapping, but after hearing the proponents discuss, it sounds like it won't be overlapping our district's boundaries. Okay, thank you. I have another question for one of the other speakers, I believe Mr. Nieman. So my question is about the infrastructure that will be built on site. So the roads, the parks. You know, we've seen sort of some master plan designs that have come through on previous applications before this body. So is it anticipated that. The infrastructure is maintained by the the metro district, or is it an expectation that the roads and the parks get turned over to the city and the city is expected to maintain them? Thank you, Council Ortega. It is the expectation that all public buildings, with the exception of certain storm drainage improvements and certain baca curb improvements, will be ultimately dedicated and maintained by the city. There is a four proximate four acre open space park that will be constructed, that the district will be districts when one or both of them will be responsible for maintaining until such time as the city accepts it and the warranty periods expire, at which point it will be formally dedicated over to the city. And is there a warranty period on the streets? It will, yes. It would follow the normal dedication process. So what is that normal time frame? I believe it's two years. Okay. I know this is an issue that has come up with some of our tax increment financing districts in terms of the added costs that the city has to incur as a result of them becoming city streets and parks. And so that's why I wanted to understand this, because we're trying to ensure that the districts that are creating the infrastructure sort of handle that responsibility until in the case of a TIFF district, until the tiff has expired. You know, we're not completely there as as a, you know, a formal body in the administration ensuring that we're all on the same page with that. But, you know, that is a concern because when you have these big districts, it just adds that much more. I get this will be new infrastructure. So the maintenance should be probably less than some of our other streets in the adjacent neighborhood that are not paved and have no sidewalks and some of those things. But thank you for answering that question. Let me see if I have any more. I think that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Ortega. Councilman Noon. Thank you, Mr. President. Johnson. So do you. Um, Councilman. Oh, that's a car owner. I'm sorry. Yes, no problem. I'm subbing for Anderson. Right. So it's not a problem. Just looking at revenue sources on page 24 and 25 of the first document just. And the Avalon of the 50 mills. Well, what is going to be the average cost used in the 50 mills on an average price of a home in that area? What do you think the increase will be? Do we have those numbers quickly? Well, maybe. It's an easy calculation. It's an easier calculation. We can do the calculation pretty much as if you had we we have rough averages of the 84 that home. I think they had averages of around 350,000. Zach. For average home sales. Okay so so what you do you can use your if they had a they have a. The way this works is developer will put a model of what they think the the home price will be for the sale and then we can do an average of what we think the home sale price would be. So if you use a average home sale price of $350,000 and then times up by the assessment ratio. I'm looking for Zach to pull the numbers real quick. As a calculator. Yeah, if he's. Got a calculator quick, you can fool the $350,000 times the 7.97% ratio. Thank you. Yeah. So let me just do this here real quick. So if we had a home of $350,000. Times. .0796 times .001 times 50. It's about 1300 hours for about 1400 hours for the year for 50 meals on a $300,000 home. Okay. On page 25 is talking about a1a fee there, a facilities fee. There's like $3,000 for single family and 1500 dollars for a multi-unit family unit. Is that a one time fee? It's going to be, I believe. Yes, that's the one time fee that would be charged. I think probably at the time of sale. At the time. Or the builder fee, actually, you can sell it to the builder to pay. Their existing homes in that area. Now, they're not. All brand new, right? That's correct. Okay. Thank you. Grill. But what about your rental projects? Are you still thinking about rental building on rental units or are you going to jump into like that capsule in connection to the condo market? Or if Councilman Kennedy would like to sign personally on guarantees? That's that's fantastic. But so far, we're not I don't have the appetite, you know, to to engage in any kind of construction. But, you know, we're we're seeing, you know, a little bit of a little bit of interest from the condo developers. And, you know, we've always had the interest from some that are lot smaller scale and would not come under the auspices of some of the trial attorneys. But, you know, we have not seen any large scale condos yet, but we just it would be a fantastic addition to our project and talk about affordability. It could really get really, you know, be a great bolster for the city. Well, we sure hope you'll consider it. And Mr. Broadwell is going to protect you there. So let me ask you a question about this tax. What do you think this everyone tax is going to be on your project? What do you think the total will be for you and what do you think that you'll probably have to pass on to your rental units? I'm sorry. In regards to what. Level of tax on your property you're going to have this you're going to have larger you know, you're going to have 300 units or. I think we projected seven, 750 units. Okay. What do you think the the property tax bill would be for you for that? That would. I do not know. I may need a calculator. Yeah. Get that big calculator on that one. Are you looking for. I'm sorry, the total tax revenue. Just like to know what? His tax bill. He's going to be the property underwriters. So he'll be paying that tax rate. And so. So then I'm sure you'll pass that on in to rental for your use. If you just let me know what that information is. You know, just. I appreciate it. Absolutely, Councilman. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. New council. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm not sure who the appropriate person would be to answer this, but looking in the presentation, it outlines 450 single family residences and knowing that the Metro District Board will be initially set up with large land owners in the area. Where do you see or is there going to be a transition when residents of those 450 single family units might look towards elections to serve on the metro district board? Thank you, Councilmember Gilmore. The natural life cycle of of a district basically is as residents come into the district and own property there, they become eligible electors of the district. The at this organizational election coming up in May of this two months I guess there'll be and each district there'll be three board members who have a four year term which will expire in May 2020 and two. That will have a two year term that will expire in May 2018 and that's statutorily set. Basically, it depends on the phasing of development in how quickly single family residents move in there and and renters other times, I think is going to be renters when moving. They're basically there can be as dependent on how development continues there can be new board members as of May 2018 if they are voted out. So they'll be a full term. A full house will turn over the board in May 2020. Can you confirm Will is the board set up currently with five members? Yes, it's a five member board, and that's usually the default for a special district. And will it stay at five members or as you have. New property owners, come. In through the single family residences? Will the board grow? It'll stay at five. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilwoman Gummer. Councilman. Yes, thank you. Real quick. I was listening to the question for my council colleague, councilman, to whom I worked together a lot. And so I said, we're developing the mind meld. But I just wanted to check really quickly. Graham, if you could clarify, are you can you please describe which piece of the development your company is doing and then which pieces will be done by others? Because I think, Councilman, you may have been asking you for information you might not have. And I just want to make sure that we all are clear on your role before we close out the hearing. Sure. Councilman. So we are only the horizontal developer. We control the entire 41 acres. So we are just, you know, putting in the streets and national attention and the parks. And the plan is for us to sell to vertical developers. So we do are the the financing plan that we came up with to support the districts is just is based upon, you know, some what we think, you know, could happen here and with a mixture of different housing types, different price points, mix of of of single family and multifamily housing. But we are just the horizontal developer and we do not have plans to to be the vertical developer of the product at this time. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Kenny. Councilman Ortega. I just wanted to ask if it looks like at this point that the the building, the Denver Post building, if any of that stays or if it's expected that that goes? Or is that proposed just to be an interim use? A former competing newspaper guy. So don't listen to what he's saying. You know, I may abstain from answering that question just as I don't you know, I don't want to upset Councilman Flynn, but we do not have any firm plans for the demolition of that building at this time. You know, we still have some some some very interesting ideas for the repurposing of that building. However, you know, there there there does still need to be the infrastructure put into to make the building more accessible and to, you know, add add things like the park and, you know, bring in a mix of uses. So that is a very large building and there are no plans, you know, either way at this point. We continue to explore, you know, the the opportunities as well as get the pieces in place that we can start redeveloping the entire site. So assuming you have seriously interested folks that wouldn't require the demolition, do you anticipate in the interim continuing to see things like Denver fully back there? We that was that was a phenomenal event. And we absolutely want them to continue. And it's really helped, you know, for people to actually see where this is and be in the building. And so we're absolutely exploring, you know, bigger and better things for for that. And we I've thought about this building every day for eight and a half years. And so I would love to see the building stay. And, you know, but it's you know, we're really excited about bringing a mix of users into the site. Great. Thank you. I have no further questions. Thank you, Councilman Ortega. Any other questions on Caterpillar? So nine. CNN public hearing is now closed. Time for comments. Councilman Canete. Thank you, Mr. President. I have not consulted with my colleague, Councilman Brooks, but this is in his district, and I know that he would not want us to allow a project of this magnitude to go forward without some comment of support. To say that we are excited about the potential. I know that he has spent a lot of time thinking about the importance of transit oriented development in his district. And and so I, I want to appreciate, again, how much time this team has spent getting to know the council, getting to know some of the visions we have for TOD in the city and really helping to, you know, marry the vision that you have had for this eight and a half years with some of the plans and visions the city has. So it's never easy doing a project of this scale. But but the infrastructure is the beginning of it. So I want to thank you for the time you spent and wish you luck with the next phases. And I will be supporting this metropolitan district tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Canete. Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. So technically, this site is in the Globeville neighborhood, and I know that the applicant has had conversations with folks from Globeville, as well as the Sunnyside neighborhood. And yesterday, actually, I went and drove around on the west side of the tracks and both the Sunnyside and the Globeville neighborhood adjacent to this Tod stop . That will be opening, I think, next year. Right. Is is seeing a lot of interest. We this body has risen several other properties to the south of this site that are hoping to do some TOD development. And my hope is, as we see more and more investment, we're having a separate conversation about sidewalks. And, you know, this is an area that still has no streets and no sidewalks. And so I'm hoping that as a city, we get to a place where all of our neighborhoods have that basic infrastructure. I'm not asking the developer to do that for the rest of the neighborhood, although that would be nice. But, you know, it's it's one of those things that I think we're continuing to look at in terms of how we have that basic infrastructure consistent all across the city. But I want to commend the developer for their commitment in addressing the affordable housing issue. I don't have to tell you what a challenge this is across the city for people who want to live in Denver that can't afford the prices. And so just knowing that that's a commitment you're making is very much appreciated. So thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Ortega. Councilman Cashman. Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to pile on. The affordable housing element of this was real interesting when this project came before council originally, I guess last fall or maybe it was even late summer. And I got the feeling from the team that I think they kind of thought it was just going to be a perfunctory visit and sell along. And one by. One, I'm aware that that. That topic of affordable housing came up and which is a priority of this council. And the project kind of went on hold for a while. And it's my understanding, as has been alluded to, that you folks did a lot of outreach into the affordable housing community, which is a great start. But it's only a start. And I am aware you are horizontal developers and. You're the guys that pick out. The vertical developers. So the responsibility lays with you to continue. To. Step to and do everything you can to fulfill the vision that I. Believe is shared. That there be a a robust, affordable housing component to to this project. So I want to thank. You for. Putting it on halt. Rethinking. And coming back with a broader approach. And I look forward to supporting this this evening. Thank you, Councilman Cashman and Councilman Flynn. Thank you, Mr. President. Just a few brief comments that this project has been long in coming, and I really welcome it. It's a I think it's a fabulous redevelopment site near the 41st and FOX Station, not light rail, but commuter rail. They haven't announced an opening date yet, but when I left the project, it was expected to be around October sometime in the mid fall. And quite a historic site as well as the Argo smelter used to be there. And and then, of course, the Denver Post printing plant. And it's good to see some activity, some residential, some commercial activity coming to that area at one time. Maybe I should've asked this during the hearing, but at one time, the investors included coach Mike Shanahan. I don't know if he's still involved in the group or not. So there's a long history of trying to get this thing off the ground. And I'm glad to see that you're finally there. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Flynn. Any other comments? Constable 79. CNN Madam secretary, welcome. Can each. Lopez new Ortega I assessment I black eye. Clark. Hi, Flynn. Hi. Gilmore Cashman. Hi. Mr. President. I. Madam Secretary, please. Those are only now the results. 11 eyes 911, 979 has been placed on file. Consideration does pass. Well, that's the bell. So seeing no other business before this body, this meeting is adjourned.