Arapahoe County staff on Tuesday summarized the capital improvement program (CIP) submittals for 2026 and the subsequent five‑year outlook, telling commissioners the county’s current annual capital revenue is roughly $10.2 million while the universe of submitted projects for the same period totals many times that figure.

Why it matters: Departments submitted a wide set of ‘‘have‑to,’’ ‘‘should‑do’’ and ‘‘could‑do’’ projects that together reflect deferred maintenance, aging building systems, technology refresh needs, and rising transportation demands. Staff said the board’s CIP committee will score and prioritize projects and send recommendations to the executive budget committee ahead of formal budget decisions.

Scope and funding context

Staff said the county’s capital expenditure fund draws from property tax (the capex portion of the county levy), specific ownership tax and a modest planned use of fund balance, totaling about $10.2 million for 2025. That baseline contrasts with submitted capital requests across facilities, information technology, transportation and open spaces that, when combined over five years, place program needs in a much higher range; staff presented an aggregated universe of roughly $40–$60 million across the next five years in submitted project costs.

Major priorities identified

Facilities: Facilities and Fleet Management highlighted nine high‑priority ‘‘have‑to’’ projects for 2026, including life‑safety work such as sheriff’s office fire‑alarm upgrades, detention facility life‑safety and HVAC replacements, and courthouse chiller and roof renewals. Mike Gullen, Facilities and Fleet Management, said deferring systems risks larger emergency repairs and diverts staff from preventive maintenance.

Information technology: IT staff said several enterprise systems are at or near end‑of‑life and need scheduled refreshes to reduce operational risk. Priority items included replacing the county’s enterprise service‑management (ticketing) system, door‑controller access systems, enterprise content/document management replacement and data‑center cooling units. Philip Sedina (Technology) said moving complex applications to a predictable refresh schedule reduces the need for ad‑hoc supplemental funding and lowers cybersecurity and compliance risk.

Transportation: Public Works and Development presented multimodal, safety, capacity and operational projects. Top county‑only priorities for 2026 included bike/ped investments, ADA ramp work tied to road maintenance, signals and intersection improvements, and remediation of low‑water crossings and small bridges. Brian Wilmer, Public Works and Development, emphasized the long‑term cost implications: “As projects get pushed to the right, they typically become more expensive because of inflationary cost,” he said.

Open spaces: Open spaces staff listed HVAC upgrades at the fairgrounds, the Arcadia Park project in partnership with a developer, and an enhanced High Line Canal trail resurfacing request — the latter a congressional funding request staff said remains under consideration.

Process and prioritization

Staff described a scoring process that will evaluate every submitted capital project on required criteria: statutory or service requirements, alignment with strategic plans, asset management impacts, master‑plan support, risk of noncompletion, user impact, and project readiness. Subject‑matter experts across facilities, IT, transportation and open spaces will score projects within their domains and produce ranked recommendations for the CIP committee and executive budget committee.

What was not decided

No budget allocations were made at the study session. Staff and the board stressed that most capital projects do not disappear if not funded; they generally move rightward in schedule and rise in cost. Commissioners asked for refinements, and several said they wanted to see funding scenarios and the prioritized list before making allocation decisions.

Ending

Staff said they will complete scoring, bring prioritized recommendations to the executive budget committee and return to the board in the fall with proposed allocations for inclusion in the 2026 budget process.