CSU Pueblo, city discuss metro districts and URA overlay for campus-adjacent development

Representatives from Colorado State University Pueblo presented a plan at the July 14 Pueblo City Council work session to create three metropolitan districts and an urban renewal area to finance horizontal public improvements for a mixed-use development on approximately 116 acres of university-owned land adjacent to campus.

Rico Munn, acting president at CSU Pueblo, and Garrison M. Ortiz, the university's vice president of operations and chief financial officer, described the project as mixed-use and student-focused, including retail, restaurants, a hotel and student housing. Ortiz said the plan uses a layered public-finance approach — metropolitan districts overlaid with an urban renewal area — to fund streets, water, sewer and park improvements and to advance a master-developer selection process planned for the fall.

Suzanne (surname not provided), an attorney advising on special districts, explained the service-plan and formation process for metropolitan districts under Title 32 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. She said the university is proposing three separate districts — commercial, for-rent residential and for-sale residential — so different uses can have appropriately tailored mill levies and financing. She said the engineer's estimate for required horizontal infrastructure is just over $11.7 million and that the service plans request a $21 million maximum debt limit per district to allow transactional costs and inflation buffer; the proposed maximum debt and levy levels would be set in the service plans and are subject to the city's review in a forthcoming public hearing.

Ortiz said staff hopes to seek a public hearing in August on the service plan and to hold a November election for organization and TABOR/debt questions. He said the university aims to have the three districts and the URA created by fall to stay on schedule for a master developer selection in the same timeframe.

Council members asked how the districts would affect taxes and whether students could face additional fees. Councilman Mark Geller asked whether sales and use tax would continue to flow to the city; Ortiz said sales-tax arrangements and any URA-related remittance requests would be part of later URA plan documents and stakeholder engagement. Ortiz said the land is currently owned by the university and therefore off the tax rolls; he told council that creating the metro districts would generate new property tax base once development occurs. On student costs, Ortiz said no additional student fees are being imposed by the district creation and that student-fee processes at CSU Pueblo are established separately from the metro-district structure.

Council members also asked about the effect on city infrastructure costs; Ortiz and legal counsel said the developer and financing tools are expected to cover street and utility extensions (including Desert Flower Boulevard connection) estimated by city and project engineers to save the city millions in infrastructure costs compared with the city funding all improvements directly. Ortiz said staff will present URA plan documents to council in the coming weeks and that further stakeholder meetings with city, county and school-district officials are planned before final approvals.

No formal council action was taken; presenters said they would return for a public hearing on the service plan and for subsequent URA documents.