Arvada council approves Howard Ranch metropolitan district service plan with transparency and temporary sign requirement

The Arvada City Council on Sept. 2 approved R25-075, a resolution adopting the proposed service plan for the Howard Ranch Metropolitan District, a 54-home development south of West 60th Avenue and north of Hyatt Lake.

The service plan authorizes up to $3,600,000 in debt with a maximum debt-term limit of 40 years and a debt-service mill levy cap of 50 mills; it also caps an operations mill levy at 10 mills. Council approval included two conditions: the district must meet the city’s transparency requirements in Arvada City Code and the district’s intergovernmental agreement must require a minimum 2-foot-by-4-foot sign at the northern intersection of Howell Street and West 60 First Circle, to be posted for two years or until all units are sold, whichever comes first.

Why this matters: metropolitan districts are local governments created to finance and install public improvements such as roads, water and sewer lines. The Howard Ranch service plan would allow the district to issue bonds to fund some of those improvements; staff and the applicant said a substantial portion of the project’s roughly $5.3 million in public-improvement costs…