The Aurora City Council agreed Monday that a nearly vacant field near Interstate 70 and E-470 could be considered blight, paving the way for negotiations to begin on tax incentives for a massive $1.5-billion urban development.
Blight. Merriam-Webster defines it as something that frustrates plans or hopes. Maybe the new plans for that area don’t mean what I think they mean.
The council voted 6-4 on a resolution to consider the area blight as part of their regularly scheduled meeting Monday night.The controversial vote was largely procedural, as intense negotiations for tax increment financing and other considerations will be held later this month as well as a public meeting schedule that will begin in March.
Good to know that it’s just regular business to declare a huge chunk of land as blight. There is nothing about that land that is any different than the thousands of square miles that make up the high prarie that is Colorado. And Kansas. And Nebraska. And pretty much everything between the Rockies and the Mississippi. So why the determination?
Lend Lease, an Australian-based developer with offices in Denver, presented a study to the city council showing that the proposed site for the Horizon Uptown project, a 503-acre mixed-use development near the major intersection, qualified as blight under 8 of 11 criteria outlined in Colorado state law. The ruling lays the foundation for a TIF district to help fund the large project.
So according to the new Aurora City Council, declaring a parcel of land as junk means that its more ideal for development. There might be something that the council is missing, no?
It’s also destroying the intent of the original Tax Increment Financing legislation. To explain TIF briefly, when a public project (like a road or a school) is built, there is often an increase in the value of the land surrounding the project, which (hopefully) attracts new development and investment. The increased tax revenues on this new development are the “tax increment.”
Giving to a city council the ability to declare a section of land as blight so that they can use it to further development is tantamount to the decision behind Kelo v. the City of New London Supreme Court case.
Capturing the full tax increment and directing it to repay the development bonds ignores the fact that the incremental increase in property value likely requires an increase in the provision of public services, which will now have to be funded from elsewhere (often from subsides from less economically thriving areas). For example, the use of tax increment financing to create a large residential development means that public services from schools to public safety will need to be expanded, yet if the full tax increment is captured to repay the development bonds, other money will have to be. (citation)
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen the presentation by Lend Lease and am familiar with their plans for the Horizon Uptown project. I think the development will be good for the city and both Arapahoe and Adams counties in Colorado. I just believe that the city council is gaming the system for something that doesn’t need dirty tricks or loopholes to get done.
Adams County Treasurer John Lefebvre has the same complaint about the use of “blight” to further development.
TIFs, as a financing mechanism, were designed to level the economic playing field between blighted inner cities and their urban-edge alternatives. Cities were losing jobs and tax base while new land was being developed adding to urban sprawl.Blight, or more accurately, the definition of blight, has become the battleground. To ensure that tools such as TIF and eminent domain are used appropriately a formal designation of blight is necessary. Yet, the definition of blight in Colorado has become so ambiguous and subjective that any place can be declared blighted.
Think it’s an overreaction? This is a list of the terms that were used recently to declare another piece of land (not far from Horizon) as blight:
* lack of infrastructure
* incorrectly configured infrastructure
* site or other improvement deterioration
* faulty lot layout
* unsanitary or unsafe conditions
* unusual topography, or
* defective or unusual conditions impairing economic growth.
Now think about any unbuilt areas of land around your home. Can’t they all be declared as blight under this definition? Under Eminent Domain, a government entity can declare even your home as blight and take it over for themselves, and we’ve seen exactly that already happen in New London.
Want more? Google “TIF” and “Chicago” and see where that takes you!
