The Texas developer wants lots of government money in its attempt to pull off this ill advised potential disaster (BTW - last night they did not even try to hide behind their fake Lakewood shell company called Lakewood Land Partners but just came right out and recognized they are Lincoln Properties of Texas).

 

The City's plan is to give them financial support in the following five avenues:

 

(1) give them a metro district called the Bend - this allows them to borrow money at lower interest rates by qualifying for government bonds. In addition, when the housing project is completed, their wholly controlled metro district can then charge the residents all sorts of fees to pay off those bonds.

 

(2) Urban Renewal - granting them a "blighted" designation allows them to get pass all sorts of government red tape. A couple of the factors qualifying the property as blighted is because of the environmental contamination that needs to be cleaned up.

 

(3) TIF (tax incremental financing) - the City will give the developer the difference in property taxes collected before and after the development. Starting with the current property taxes as a base line (essentially next to nothing is currently being collected) and then taking whatever additional property taxes are collected when the properties become more valuable because of the housing (apartments) and a few shops as the increment. Those additional property taxes would then be given to the developer.

 

(4) PIF (Public Improvement Fees) - the developer can charge a "sales tax" on sales from the few businesses they propose to include in the project (a few coffee shops, etc.) This is the method they used to support the Belmar project for years.

 

(5) Providing them with water and sewer services. Since Green Mtn. Water and Sanitation District - GMWSD is making them prove that disturbing the toxins buried under the site will NOT eventually create a Love Canal situation, the City is proposing to provide them with water and sewer. 

 

(a) Applying pressure on GMWSD - the Councilors asked GMWSD to play ball with their grand scheme and they hope public pressure may be brought to bear on the water district's Board of Directors (currently there is an election for new Board members).  If that does not work they want to ask the state to force GMWSD to give the developer what he wants. However they realize, at this late date in the state legislature session, it's too late to play that card. (BTW - they did get this year's state legislative session to regulate tap fees GMWSD may charge new developments).

 

(b) If GMWSD won't play ball, then the City has agreed to provide the developer with water and sewer, leaving GMWSD out of the equation. (BTW - the developer's lawsuit against GMWSD has now been removed by the District's legal counsel from Jeffco courts and moved to federal court in Denver where judges are less susceptible to local political pressures and are more sensitive to federal issues like pollution and health & safety.  Furthermore GMWSD has asked the federal court for a jury trial which is more sympathetic to consumer issues) . 

 

City staff suggested the developer could get water from Consolidated Mutual Water from across 6th Avenue. Their alternative is to hook up to the City's sewer district (yes the City has it's own sewer district that covers the northeast quarter of the City) at the corner of Kipling and 6th Ave. by laying a sewer pipeline from the horseshoe property along the southern edge of 6th Ave. through either CDOT land or Denver Federal Center land. 

 

c.)  The City Council informally favored having the City give them a sewer connection if they can not get GMWSD to drop it's demands for substantive environmental information on Federal Center land. The developer prefers the first option of pressuring GMWSD because having the City resolve their water and sewer problems is far more expensive for them and will reduce the profitability of the whole project. This plan would also increase the City's culpability and thus potential legal liability. 

 

BTW - they employed the standard practice of offering some "crumbs" to make the whole deal more palpable. First, they promised to include 200 "affordable" housing units (who knows what that means). They also promised to include a dog park and a special museum to house Lakewood's Trolley Car 25.