Town Administrator              June 10, 2019

In Memory of 12 in Virginia Beach. The Erie Police Department recently provided training for Town staff and the Board of Trustees on how to react in “active harmer” situations. On May 28^th, Erie's Board of Trustees read a proclamation recognizing June 7, 2019 as National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Three days later, on May 31, 12 local government staff working in the Virginia Beach Municipal Center were killed by a coworker. This combined sequence of events makes the threat of gun violence feel especially real to me. The PD’s training was very helpful. I find further solace in knowing that the probability of workplace violence is very remote.  Nevertheless, I ask everyone to do all you can to prevent such violence, including being aware of and reaching out to colleagues who show any signs of stress or depression. And if you are the one struggling, don’t hesitate to reach out to others. As Bill Withers’ famous song so movingly conveyed, “We all need somebody to lean on”.   

Area Networking. At the Boulder/Broomfield Area Manager/Administrators meeting last week we discussed forming an informal oil and gas working group, so we can learn from the experiences in each community and coordinate action as appropriate.  We also discussed scheduling a housing summit of the Boulder County Regional Housing Partnership sometime this fall.

I-25 URA. If you have not already done so, I encourage you to review the Erie Gateway plan. That plan illustrates the Town’s vision for a thriving employment, retail, entertainment and transit oriented development in the 1,200 acre area at the NW corner of Erie Parkway and I-25. However, before we can achieve that vision, we must eliminate the existing blight conditions on the site, which include undermining from former coal mines, environmental contamination and other issues. Developing the Gateway Plan, along with the Town of Erie spending $6.5 million to acquire the 255 acre parcel at the core area of the URA demonstrates the Town’s commitment to this project. To achieve the Town’s vision, we also need Weld County’s partnership and have met with the Weld County Board of County Commissioners (WCBoCC) several times over the past year to discuss forming the I-25 Urban Renewal Area (URA) and how the Town intends to use the URA and Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to address blight and to finance the public improvements needed to facilitate development on the site.  Our most recent meeting with the WCBoCC was on May 28^th. As a follow-up to that meeting, and on behalf of the Town of Erie Urban Renewal Authority (TOEURA), I sent a letter to the WCBoCC, explaining (1) the TOEURA’s actions to secure agreements from all other entities that have taxing authority within the I-25 URA, (2) how TOEURA has gained written consent from property owners who want to be included in the I-25 URA, (3) the economic benefits of structuring the TIF as proposed, and (4) the significant investment the Town, metro districts and the private sector will be making in the proposed I-25 URA.  Based on all that, I asked the WCBoCC to either adopt the TIF financing agreement the TOEURA proposed, or respond with a specific counter proposal, no later than July 2, 2019
 
Nine Mile Development. Today (6/10) we had a very productive meeting of the primary team members representing Evergreen Devco, Tebo Properties, Erie and Lafayette. We focused on action steps to move development forward on both sides of the SH 287/Arapahoe Road intersection. That meeting made it clear that Erie and Evergreen are ready to proceed with the Nine Mile development with engineering plans, URA financing, a plan and timeline to form a Metro District to facilitate financing, active negotiations with anchor tenants and other details. In contrast, development on the west side of SH 287 will require much more work to get to the same stage, including annexing the property into Lafayette and developing preliminary plans. Lafayette staff showed their genuine interest in moving things forward as quickly as possible by saying they will issue a letter asking CDOT to validate the existing 3/4 access permit enabling the Nine Mile development to access SH 287. The cooperative spirit in the meeting among all parties was very positive.