City Council Study Session Agenda and Packet 2020 01 28

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1/22/2020 Denver Post investigation into Colorado's metro districts reveals billions in debt paid by homeowners Joe Amon, The Denver Post Bruce Rau listens during the budget discussion in a meeting of the Thompson Crossing Metro Districts 3-6 at the Abundant Life Tabernacle in Johnstown on Sept. 17, 2019. Rau is president of all 4 districts. TABOR ushers in new era There was a time when developers recouped the costs of building a subdivision entirely through the sale of the homes they created. For that reason, subdivisions were often limited in size or scope. Developers kept control of their costs by minimizing how much they spent. The largest expense is a development's initial infrastructure, which goes into the ground long before a single home is built. Costs quickly run into the tens of millions of dollars. In the past, it was simply a part of the investment a developer made on a new project with the hope of recouping it as homes were sold. Sometimes a developer was fortunate enough to gain the cooperation of a city or county, which would issue its own bonds to help pay for the infrastructure that connected the new subdivision to the rest of the community. The process rarely included any say from voters as elected officials handled the public policy. Though metropolitan districts have existed since the 1940s, they weren't as favorable a method of construction, mostly because of the technical details nnrl ractrirtinnc nn aPttino, nrniartc Anna https://www.denverpost.com/2019/12/05/metro-districts-debt-democracy-colorado-housing-development/ 32 6/19