City Council Study Session Agenda and Packet 2020 01 28

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1/22/2020 Metro districts in Colorado have little transparency on transfer fees, community funds One of the districts he manages, Potomac Farms in Adams County, charges a 1% transfer fee for any home sale on the property for the next 99 years and sends it to CovenantClearninghouse.com, Wolfersberger said. "Although the developer created the metro district and developed the land within the district, the transfer fee was set up and attached to the land by the developer, not the district," Wolfersberger said. "So the district is unable to undo that." One Colorado nonprofit — Green Valley Ranch Foundation — receives transfer fee money from several metro districts built by Oakwood Homes, according to the foundation's tax filings reviewed by The Post. According to its most recent tax filings, the Green Valley Ranch foundation in 2018 received nearly $150,000, though it's unclear how much came from transfer fees. If all of it did, then developer Oakwood Homes was able to keep three-quarters of the total, or $450,000. Records show the Green Valley Ranch foundation donated $46,000 in 2017 to a variety of programs and $129,828 in 2018 including: • $1,000 to Denver School of Science and Technology • $25,000 to First Tee program at Green Valley Ranch Golf Course • $13,000 to Cleo Parker Robinson Dance • $23,400 to Martin Luther King Jr. Early College • $30,000 to Swallow Hill Music program Foundation board member Amy Schwartz, who does most of its work, said not having residents be a part of the organization's decision -making process for grants "is just kind of the way we've done it" and isn't really necessary. "I think we feel pretty engaged with the community and really confident of our relationship with them," she told The Post. "I'm in the unique position to understand because that's my job:' Following the 2011 lawsuit ruling, some metro districts chose to do away with anything called a transfer fee rather than set up a foundation or use a charity trustee. They simply call it something else. At Amber Creek Metropolitan District in Thornton, its board charges a flat $250 fee on the sale of any home and calls it an "account administration r 19 1 .1 r i •.1 .1 i- . • , r https://www.denverpost.com/20l9/l2/O9/metro-districts-transfer-fees-nonprofits-foundations/ 49 5/9