\n\t\t\tDenver council members press mayor to budget millions more for rent assistance, election funding\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n
The BID in this case refers to the Cherry Creek North Business Improvement District, which was the first BID in the Denver metropolitan area when it was formed in 1989, according to the organization\u2019s website. It covers the neighborhood\u2019s business district north of the mall, from University Boulevard to Steele Street between First and Third avenues. One major spending area\u00a0has been private security, which grew from nothing in 2019 to $800,000 in 2023.<\/p>\n
Sawyer said establishing a GID is a way for residents to get their desired improvements.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, the GID is the right tool,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But the possible GID attracted an organized opposition effort over the summer, despite the formation process being far from landing on local ballots.<\/p>\n
The effort was concentrated in the residential part of Cherry Creek North. Yard signs went up, as did a\u00a0website, showing the words \u201cNew Tax New Tax New Tax\u201d flanked by siren emojis.<\/p>\n
Among the organizers of that effort was Wayne New, a Cherry Creek resident who represented the neighborhood on the Denver City Council from 2015 to 2019. He said residents are \u201cvery tired of increasing property taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was Democracy 101. So we felt good about that,\u201d New said about Cherry Creek\u2019s defeated GID effort.<\/p>\n
When New was on the council, he facilitated discussions about a possible GID in the Golden Triangle, which at the time was still early in its development boom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought a GID was more for undeveloped areas,\u201d New said.<\/p>\n
That GID effort also fizzled before landing on ballots. New said residents in the Golden Triangle just weren\u2019t interested. He said a GID in Cherry Creek \u201cdidn\u2019t make sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCherry Creek doesn\u2019t fit,\u201d he said. \u201cWe pay the highest amount of property taxes in the city. We could easily pay for our own improvements if we wanted to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sawyer said Cherry Creek is the No. 1 neighborhood in Denver in terms of the per-capita revenue it provides the city. In terms of total revenue, she said, it\u2019s No. 2, trailing only downtown.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a source of frustration for them,\u201d Sawyer said of residents.<\/p>\n
Dana Busch, another resident who opposed the GID, said residents feel they\u2019re the city\u2019s \u201ccash cow\u201d and are increasingly paying more and getting less with Denver now charging for trash pickup and sidewalk maintenance. She said that, with the exception of private security, she doesn\u2019t think neighbors were asking for things a GID would do.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe live in a very nice area. \u2026 I think the neighbors got really blindsided and continued to not really understand where this was coming from in the first place,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Sawyer said she\u2019s fine that Cherry Creek decided not to pursue a GID. But she doesn\u2019t like how it went down. She said she repeatedly apologized to Giellis for how she was treated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m surprised by the level of vitriol and intentional sharing of misinformation,\u201d Sawyer said.<\/p>\n
Busch acknowledged that some \u201cvery direct messages\u201d were sent, but said that came when residents asked questions and got \u201cdefensive\u201d nonanswers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll that did was leave people more frustrated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Giellis said opponents saw a GID as \u201cjust a money grab.\u201d They falsely said the money collected would go to the city\u2019s general fund and not actually be spent in the neighborhood, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe announcement of all the budget cuts in the middle of the process certainly didn\u2019t make it any easier,\u201d she said, referencing Denver laying off 170 employees in August.<\/p>\n
New voiced a similar concern in an interview Monday with BusinessDen.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously the city doesn\u2019t have a lot of money,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re looking for local sources.\u201d<\/p>\n
New said there was \u201ca lack of information\u201d about the possible GID, including what things would cost. Many details just hadn\u2019t been finalized yet, according to Giellis, who said opponents fabricated numbers.<\/p>\n
New noted that there would be no way for residents to opt out of the GID, and that it would be in place for years. GIDs are overseen by boards made up of district representatives. He said the structure meant \u201cwe sort of would be losing a bit of control over our neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
New doesn\u2019t see a GID as the only way to get improvements. The nearby Country Club neighborhood has roaming private security, he noted. But it\u2019s not financed by a special tax district \u2014 some, but not all, residents\u00a0just directly pay for it.<\/p>\n
In a July survey conducted by Giellis, 65% of respondents said they were not interested in continuing to explore creating a GID. The process, however, continued for two more months. Sawyer said some of the uninterested respondents also wrote that they didn\u2019t have enough information to answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel bad for the residents of Cherry Creek,\u201d Sawyer said. \u201cIt was meant to be a solution, and what has happened is it pitted neighbors against each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Busch said other neighborhoods should see this as a model to emulate.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can affect change,\u201d she said. \u201cBut you have to get enough people involved and you have to have a strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more from our partner, BusinessDen<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\nGet more business news by signing up for our Economy Now newsletter.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Denver City Council member calls it \u201cDemocracy 101.\u201d A current council member says she\u2019s \u201csurprised by the level of vitriol and intentional sharing of misinformation.\u201d The topic: A special tax district in Cherry Creek. Last month, after significant pushback from residents in the ritzy neighborhood, discussions of implementing a general improvement district, which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.agencywebdesigners.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.agencywebdesigners.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.agencywebdesigners.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.agencywebdesigners.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.agencywebdesigners.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.agencywebdesigners.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1230,"href":"http:\/\/www.agencywebdesigners.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229\/revisions\/1230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.agencywebdesigners.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.agencywebdesigners.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.agencywebdesigners.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.agencywebdesigners.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}