GOLDEN — ‘s downtown area is the focus of a Nov. 5 special mail-ballot election to determine whether a new Downtown Development Authority will be established to maintain and finance economic development within the downtown area.
Qualified electors (those who reside in or own or lease property and businesses in the proposed area) will be asked to fill out an affirming their eligibility to vote on four questions that, if approved, would recognize the DDA boundaries, allow the authority to receive tax increments and keep excess revenues, authorize the city to borrow up to $4.5 million in bonds on behalf of the DDA with no liability and authorize a 5-mill property tax increase on properties within DDA boundaries.
Affidavits are due at City Hall, 911 10th St., by Oct. 15. After that date, affidavits must be presented at the on-site polling place at City Hall.
For more information, including a map of the proposed boundaries, visit downtowngolden.net or e-mail goldendda@gmail.com.
According to Susan Brooks, Golden city clerk, electors who own several properties or a combination of a property and a business will get only one vote.
Since the existing will expire in 2014, a task force appointed by Golden City Council recommended a new dedicated agency be formed.
The goal is to use tax dollars generated by downtown businesses to maintain and stimulate the area.
Mark Heller, executive director of GURA, said the city has committed to no more than $200,000 per year to the proposed DDA for the first five years (part grant and part loan), with a requirement that its contribution will decrease as the DDA becomes better able to self-fund.
“City Council has linked its support to the passage of the 5-mill levy, meaning that without the mill levy increase, the city will not contribute,” Heller said.
Ed Dorsey, a resident and advocate of the DDA, told a group of residents and business owners on Oct. 1 that the new authority would assume some, but not all of the maintenance and development efforts that GURA has provided.
GURA has funded and developed the Gateway Station condos, Golden Hotel parking and Clear Creek Commons apartments. GURA also has provided funding for new businesses.
Without such an agency, Dorsey said it would be the city’s responsibility to do everything downtown.
“Downtown Golden has held its own in the economic downturn, in part because of the city’s economic development committee’s partnerships and because of what GURA has done to keep downtown vibrant,” Nancy Taylor Mason, resident and owner of clothing store, said.
She also said that she, as a business property owner, pays nearly three times as much in taxes as residential property owners.
Some residents expressed opposition to the proposed property tax increase.
Catherine Griffin, a resident within the boundary, expressed concern that future development might consume the residential neighborhoods on the fringes of the boundary.
“When I hear you want my tax money to develop downtown over the next 30 years, I think, OK, they’re coming in and expanding downtown. They might want to buy out these blocks,” she said.
Others questioned whether the proposed authority would have a healthy balance of residents and business owners involved in the DDA.
Karen Groves: 303-954-2303, kgroves@denverpost.com
