Wave of renewal projects subsidized by our tax dollars without our say ultimately could slow region's growth
Denver-area residents are being bombarded with high-density living centers and the convenience of living catty-cornered to light rail in a transit-oriented development. Urban renewal authorities in each municipality from Aurora to Wheat Ridge have traditionally existed for removing blight and kick-starting the local economy but are now in the developing business, using property taxes to implement this latest planning fad.
New Urbanism is a planning concept that replaces the typical suburban single-family home with high-density, walkable communities with multifamily housing on tiny lots combining retail, office and living space. Certainly, singles and childless couples will find these areas attractive, but how many more New Urban developments can Denver's housing market handle without surpassing the saturation point of becoming Condo-rado?
Absent from the media is the explanation behind all this development. Taking a closer look, under Colorado law, urban-renewal authorities can declare almost any area "blighted" and then use eminent domain to take people's land and give it to developers. The authorities can also use tax-increment financing to capture taxes on new development. A TIF is a public incentive for redevelopment that sets aside the new project's tax revenue for a set number of years and uses it to either finance bonds or reimburse the developer's costs.
These new developments all pose added costs on fire, police, libraries, schools and other urban services. But since the taxes collected from the developments are subsidizing the projects, other residents must pay these urban-service costs, either through higher taxes or by accepting lower quality services themselves.
Urban renewal authority members are appointed by the city council. Without a vote of the people, redevelopment proposals are passed at the discretion of the city council.
For instance, Louisville's Colorado 42 corridor is getting a makeover whether the citizens like it or not. The Louisville City Council rejected, then accepted, an urban renewal development with tax-increment financing worth $77.5 million despite citizen uproar.
Subsidized development will have an unfair advantage, and the planners have won the jackpot. In this way, taxpayers have spent nearly $300 million subsidizing Stapleton, $35 million subsidizing Lowry, $45 million subsidizing Arvada City Center, $95 million subsidizing Lakewood's Belmar and $62 million subsidizing Arista in Broomfield. Urban renewal aims to stimulate growth and tax revenue to remain competitive with other cities, but ultimately, it could slow regional growth as private development will be drowned out by the influx of subsidized development.
"Subsidies breed subsidies" would be a more accurate quote than what was described in "Developers, Former Foes Grow Together," (Rocky Mountain News, 2/1 7/07), where Elise Jones is quoted as saying "Success breeds success."
The Denver Regional Council of Governments has a vision complete with 70 transit-oriented developments to be built in metro Denver, many facilitated by urban-renewal authorities. Even with the subsidies, how many more people want to live with little or no yard and with all the urban annoyances of noise, crime, etc?
Urban renewal authorities see tax-increment financing as a magic wand, and some property owners see it as an overbearing use of power. Controversy over a proposed high-density development that would replace older neighborhoods near the University of Denver light-rail station is brewing and becoming a common complaint in metro Denver.
The freedom to choose where you live is subtly being eroded by the insistence of planners with New Urbanism on the mind. Freedom to live in Colorado has been reduced to politically correct neighborhoods where suburban and exurban living and auto travel has been called ugly. Regardless of labels, what the real estate market demands is of utmost importance for success in the free market.
Socially engineering the lifestyle of Coloradans seems to be the goal of many urban-renewal planners, unfortunately at the cost of taxpayers who have no say in where their taxes go. Millions have already been poured into funding new urban renewal, and without a foreseeable market correction, planners see no end in sight to transforming Colorado with high-density development.
Jennifer Lang is a researcher for the Independence Institute's Center for the American Dream and author of "New Urban Renewal in Colorado's Front Range."
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