Speaker 0: Speakers must stay on the topic of the hearing and must direct their comments to the council members. Please refrain from profane or obscene speech. Direct your comments to council as a whole and please refrain from individual or personal attacks. Council Member Can you please put Council Bill 880 on the floor?
Speaker 5: Yes, I move that council bill 18 dash 880 be placed upon final consideration and do pass.
Speaker 0: It has been moved and seconded and the public hearing for council bill 80 is open.
Speaker 2: May we have staff report?
Speaker 11: Good evening. My name is Andrew Johnston with the Department of Finance and I'm here to give you the staff report on Council Bill 1880 series of 2018 four, which wishes for an ordinance approving two service plans for a new for new metropolitan district supporting the redevelopment of 4201 East Arkansas Street. The districts are called 4201 Arkansas Metropolitan District number one and 4201 Arkansas Metropolitan District number two. The service plans are being submitted for City Council approval on behalf of CR F Arkansas LLC pursuant to the requirements of Special District Act sessions. 30 2-1, Dash 201 and more particularly 30 2-12 of 4.5 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. The service plans contain the district's purpose, powers, requirements and financing plan. The district shall be responsible for compliance with the city's municipal code rules, regulations and policy and all other applicable laws. The District shall ensure that the District's public improvements are designed and constructed in accordance with the standards and specifications of the city and other governmental entities having jurisdiction. It is anticipated that one of the proposed metropolitan districts will encompass the project's residential property, while the other metropolitan district will include all the commercial property located within the project . The new metropolitan districts together will be responsible for coordinating the financing, acquisition, construction, completion operation and maintenance of all public infrastructure and services within and without of the service areas, including without limitation street and sidewalk improvements, parking infrastructure, water, storm drainage detention and sanitary sewer improvements, landscaping, irrigation, public spaces and traffic and safety controls and their related improvements. The new metropolitan districts will have the power to raise revenues pursuant to the authorities granted by the Special District Act, including the imposition of up to 50 mills plus rates, fees, tolls and charges for debt and district operations and maintenance. The total estimated cost of the public improvements necessary to serve the contemplated development are approximately $24.2 million. In order for the new metropolitan districts to have the fiscal wherewithal to provide the funding for the upfront costs of the public improvements needed in the service area, the new metropolitan districts shall each have the ability to issue debt and impose a debt levy to provide the funding for the upfront infrastructure costs. The 4201 East Arkansas Street site is not currently located in an urban renewal area. The developer is actively engaged with the Denver Urban Renewal Authority for authorization to use tax increment financing at completion of the current plan. Provide at completion. The current plan projects a residential and commercial mixed use development. The development plans include approximately 150,000 square feet of commercial space, 150 units of deed, restricted, affordable onsite housing and additional market rate housing. Approval of the service plan establishes the following. There is sufficient existing and projected need for organized service in the area. The existing service in the area is inadequate for president and projected needs. The districts are capable of economically providing sufficient service to the area within the proposed boundaries. The land and the proposed development to be included does and will have the financial ability to discharge the proposed indebtedness on a reasonable basis. The facility and the service standards will be compatible with the facility and service standards of the city. Staff recommends approval of the service plans. The applicant, their representatives and city staff are here tonight to respond to any questions regarding this council. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. We have six I believe six individuals signed up to speak this evening. So if you're signed up to speak tonight, if you could come up to this front bench and if we could make room for our speakers. And then as soon as I call your name, step up to the podium and you may begin your your thoughts as the time will start to elapse. So first up, we have Kristin Bearer.
Speaker 5: Mr. President, council members. My name is Kristen Baer. I'm with the law firm.
Speaker 7: Of White Bear and.
Speaker 5: Tanaka and Waldron.
Speaker 7: We represent the.
Speaker 5: Petitioners in this matter. I am proposing your approval of tonight's service plan and the bill.
Speaker 7: That's before you. I would like to put on record that notices have been prepared and were sent.
Speaker 5: Out according to statute in the city's requirements. Thank you for your time and consideration of this matter and I would be happy to answer any questions you.
Speaker 7: Might have regarding the districts.
Speaker 5: Or the service plan specifically.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you very much. Next up, Christmas card.
Speaker 11: Thank you. On Christmas card with the control group. I'm representing the applicant. We really appreciate your time tonight. And I'm here for questions. We are in support of the application.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you very much. Next up, Sam Sharp.
Speaker 2: Good evening. And Sam Sharpe with D.A. Davidson, a company where the.
Speaker 1: Investment banker to the applicant and happy to answer questions.
Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next up, Florence seven.
Speaker 5: Good evening. My name is Florence Seaborn. 1140 South Forest Street, the Virginia Village neighborhood in Denver. I'd like to make a statement and also a request regarding the transparency of the process by which metro districts are created in Denver. 22 metro districts have been proposed in Denver since the beginning of the year, just over two per month on average. Metro districts are overlay districts with perpetual existence and significant authority. Metro districts levy additional property taxes. They borrow money, incur indebtedness and issue bonds. They manage control and lease property within their boundaries. They acquire property and expand their boundaries. They manage control, supervise construction, operation and maintenance within their boundaries. They fixed charge and collects collect fees for services, programs and facilities, and they enter into contracts with public utilities and municipalities. A five member board governs the Metro District. A majority of metro districts at the time they are formed have no residents. So the board is the developer. Currently, only developers. They're hired. Law firms, city council and interest city departments are aware of metro district proposals. Denver's registered neighborhood organizations are not noticed of Metro District proposals in their boundaries, and neighbors are unaware of metro districts forming in their neighborhoods. A Metro District's development impacts surrounding property values. Commercial components in a district pass on additional tax caused to neighbors who avail themselves of that district's goods and services. When I asked Community Planning and development about notice to RINO's, the reply was this and I quote The law firms representing the creation of metro districts typically send these notices out to all taxing entities with three within three miles of the new district. It's not a notice sent out by the city and county of Denver. In this particular case, they probably chose to also notice the rentals. But when I asked White Bear, any claim is Bear advised that no notice was sent to the RINO's because Colorado a revised statute does not require it. As a Denver native, born, raised and still happily living in Virginia Village, I find that people are engaged and often take advantage of the opportunity to educate themselves. I think it's a reasonable expectation of neighbors and our anos to be courtesy noticed about processes which impact us since there is only one public hearing for the creation of Metro District Service plans. I think it's even more reasonable to courtesy notice Arnaud's of the public hearing. I request that Arnaud's be courtesy noticed for all future metro districts. Frankly, anything less is at odds with Denver's emphasis on open, visible, accessible, empowered, impactful, engaged and inclusive governance. Courtesy Notices. Good policy. I ask you to make it part of this process as well. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Next up, Chairman Sekou.
Speaker 3: Good evening. My name is Chairman Sekou. I'm the founder of. Organizer for the Black Star Action Movement for Self-defense. Advocacy group for poor working, poor homeless. And. Students, senior citizens. First of all, it feels good to be back after being absent for a while. And. I want to. Take this opportunity to. So thank you for being here. And also for putting up with some. Language that wasn't necessarily appropriate for the body. There was no intention to demean or to negate what is happening here in terms of importance. There's no excuse for that. And. So thank you. And thank you, General Patton, for not throwing me out of here. For using the. Langford's. Even though it was in the Bible. So. Listen to what the previous speaker said. It's absolutely true. And. Thinking about this process and doing something different. There was a word that popped up in my brain in terms of this process called metropolitan districts. And it's all Greek word and it's called esoteric. And this is an adjective that describes the people place or thing intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of folk with a specialized knowledge or interest. For example, tonight, a city council meeting in Denver. In attendance, there were 12 elected officials full of esoteric knowledge with very little practical, common sense. Like what she was talking about. That should already be there as mandatory. And you're right it. We do something that needs improvement. Why not? It won't make us a better city. And as we seek greatness. There also has to be goodness. See. See, Hitler was a great man, but he wasn't necessarily good. Metropolitan, state, metropolitan districts are great things, but they're not necessarily good. So are we seeking greatness in the greatest city, always seeking to be a good city where we can talk about homes or no more than structures? Or is home a place where there's love, there's care, there's overwhelming good feelings about being there and that there's a support system there and it's unconditional. Is home no matter what club, that nobody gets thrown under the bus and nobody is left behind, even the ones that we don't necessarily like in our own families. So home is more than just a building. It's a place for folks to have their dreams fulfilled. So. And so in this metropolitan district, I support it. I really do because I know that. Councilman Cashman understands what I'm saying. And I know that the proper oversight will go down. So some of the things that she talked about will be done. Whether it's in the law or not because it's right to do. And it's not going to hurt you to do it. And I know you'll take the risk of being criticized by your. Double the numbers for overage. Well, they underage under the table. To get paid for the interests of why they do what they do. So they keep this on the down low. And that's the history. After 15 years of being down here, that's a history. That's the way it's been going down. So we have an opportunity with fresh blood and folks coming in or blood going out, that there's a possibility of a new way of doing things that says nothing about the people going out or the people coming in, but talking about a new way, how to do this thing so that we advance our city so that it becomes the Emerald City. An example for other cities, not only in this state, not only in this nation, but this entire world. Why not? What we got to lose by having an Emerald City green like mountains space like we talk about with this Pledge of allegiance, things that we do and all the other rituals that we do. We talk about purple mountains of majesty and what. And then in such an environment. We have the wherewithal to match the environment which is pristine with government. So that is trusted again by the people and that their voices are not just listened to or heard, but taken to heart. That, Hey, we can do this, man. We can do this. So considering some of the things that she talked about and. Some of the things that I may have missed. I feel kind of strange up here talking after being an absence. I thank you very much for your time. And I honored General Patton by sitting down.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Next up, Jesse Pierce.
Speaker 12: Good evening, members of Council. My name is Jesse Paris. Black Star Action Movement. Denver Homicide Law and also 2019. Candidate for City Council at large. What we have here seems to be another form of lack of transparency on part of this council. And I feel a constituency to know what's going on. It's a shame we have to have public comment to find these things out about what's going on with these metro districts. I don't understand why Arnaud's were not notified prior to this. It seems like this very disingenuous way of doing things. I had a few questions. The first one was the property developer says something about upwards of 150 units of affordable housing. I wanted to know what was the AMA level on that and also who was going to be occupying these units? Because we have widespread gentrification going on all throughout the city. So my question is, what are the members of this council going to do about the homeless crisis that we have in this city and a lack of not affordable but obtainable housing? We need to change the narrative because it's not affordable. Affordable for who? We need attainable housing. We need assessable housing. Yes, I know you approved the $150 million to the affordable housing fund, but that's still not enough because it's not affordable. It only is going to matter if the housing is affordable and obtainable and obsessive. And you keep screaming that you're for an inclusive city, but yet you're displacing people of color, black and brown people all over this city. It's very disingenuous and we're tired of it. So, like my elder said, we have more people coming. It's time to drain the swamp, if you will, and put some fresh blood in that actually has the concerns and listens to the concerns of the citizens of the city. Long term citizens of the city, not the transplants that just moved in here recently, the past five, ten years, but the people that have been here for over 20, 30, 40 plus years, whole generations that are being displaced right now as I speak. So with that being said, I am against this until I can get full clarification on what is the army level for these 100 plus units that were proposed to be developed. And also clarification to these Arnaud's that this will not be happening anymore and they will be notified whenever there is a metropolitan district being set up in their neighborhoods. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. That concludes our speakers. Are there any questions from members of council? Councilman Cashman.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Andrew, do you ever if you'd step up, please. Would you explain? So the developer has a rezoning request and it'll be coming before a planning board later this month and the council in the next couple of months after that. They've got a turf request in. Why is the Metro District proposed at this point?
Speaker 11: Sure. That's a really good question. Comes to timing. And interestingly enough, the right now, the reason we're seeing so many metropolitan districts coming through city council is there's a TABOR election in November. And so metropolitan districts can go to every TABOR election to get their levies authorized and go through the creation process. And then there's also every other May is a typical TABOR election for metropolitan districts, but this upcoming 2019 is not. So there's a lot of ones that are may be on the cusp of all their planning activities and all of the typical zoning conversations. And so you're seeing a few of them that are a little bit ahead of the curve, if you will, so that they can be prepared with the district once they get through the zoning and tip requirements that don't require TABOR.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Another question, this is just metro districts in general. What is the advantage to the developer of of forming a metro district rather than simply recouping their costs in higher lease rates?
Speaker 11: Sure. What one of the there's a lot of things you can do with a metropolitan district, but primarily at its core function is to do public infrastructure. And those costs, if you can. There's many ways to try and do that financing, as you alluded to. And one of those ways is to have with a metro district, have a special tax that's put on top of people's tax bill and you can pay for those upfront costs with the increased taxes. If you don't have that the other way, you've got to pay for those costs one way or another. And that would be through higher costs of either selling properties being developed or higher lease rates. So it's a little bit of a trade off of trying to find that sweet spot between increased taxes and a lower cost of property.
Speaker 1: Okay. Since you're up there, I'll ask you this, maybe a question for Ken Trump. I'm just wondering where the turf application process is at this point.
Speaker 11: I don't know that answer, unfortunately, but I do know that they're in conversations. Do you have. Okay. And we just completed a condition study that was completed at the end of August. So Dora's working through the application now in a much more formal, an expedited manner.
Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. Are you going to we'll move separately in comments, Mr. President.
Speaker 0: Yes. After we closed the hearing.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilman Cashman. Seeing no other questions. The public hearing for Council Bill 80 is closed. Comments by members of Council Councilman Cashman.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. President. It is slightly odd to have the the metro district kind of out of sync. I understand why we've been getting this flood and why this is happening. And so I'll be approving this district tonight. I wanted to address Mr. Sebring's comments. You know, when when we started public comment before council, my thought was we have 13 people up here doing their best to do a good job and we have 700,000 people in the city and county of Denver. And there are probably a bunch of good ideas out there that don't always come from council. And I think that's that's one of them. I see no reason why Metro District shouldn't be added to the list of items that that are referred to are a notification. So I'll be carrying that forward from this point. So thank you so much for your comment.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Cashman. Seeing no other comments. Madam Secretary, roll call.
Speaker 7: Katherine can eat. LOPEZ All right. New Ortega. SUSSMAN Black Brooks. Flynn.
Speaker 1: I.
Speaker 7: Gilmore. Herndon. Mr. President.
Speaker 0: Hi, Madam Secretary. Please. Because voting announced the results.
Speaker 5: Now, we were missing 112 eyes.
A bill for an ordinance approving the Service Plans for the creation of 4201 Arkansas Metropolitan District No. 1 and 4201 Arkansas Metropolitan District No. 2.
Approves the service plans for the formation and establishment of the 4201 Arkansas Metropolitan District No. 1 and the 4201 Arkansas Metropolitan District No. 2 in Council District 6.  If ordered published, a public hearing will be held on Monday, 9-10-18.  The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 8-14-18.