Denver launches Vibrant Bonds dashboard, details $45 million set aside for affordable housing development

Patrick Bridal, Vibrant Denver bond program manager, told the Denver Mayor and City Council the program's new public dashboard went live during the March 31 meeting and is intended to make project locations, budgets and phases easy for residents to track. "We made a commitment to have a public dashboard by the end of Q1 ... and we're ready to go live today," Bridal said.

Why it matters: The dashboard centralizes bond project information and is designed to show project purposes, budgets, maps and phase timing so residents and council members can see when design or construction is expected to start. The city said the tool will display linear projects as lines, and point projects as dots, with increasing date granularity as projects approach construction.

Details of the affordable housing allocation: Molly Scarborough, co‑program manager for Vibrant Denver, said the bond program set aside $45,000,000 for affordable housing project development, targeting investment in roughly 5 to 7 properties for site improvements or building acquisitions. Scarborough said all proposals supported by this money will be required to include long‑term affordable housing. "We're looking for sites ... ideally within a half mile of public transit, schools, parks, libraries and services," she said.

Process and oversight: Scarborough outlined a multi‑step screening and approval process. Opportunities are first identified by the Department of Finance real estate group, reviewed by an advisory committee (including HOST, CPD, DDO and the real estate group) against site selection criteria, and then forwarded to a Vibrant oversight leadership team and executive sponsors in the mayor's office and finance leadership (named in the meeting as Jeff Dolan and CFO Nicole Doheny) before coming to council for approval. If council approves an acquisition, the real estate team and HOST will move to an RFP process for development partners; Scarborough said the RFP is intended to be issued within 90 days of property acquisition close (that 90‑day window was described as an outside period and could be shorter).

Community engagement approach: Nick Marion, the program's finance and communications lead, described a community engagement framework that categorizes projects into "collaborate," "involve," "consult" or "inform" depending on design maturity and prior engagement. Marion said staff will tailor tactics (community advisory groups, workshops, outreach to businesses) to each project's needs and will follow up directly with council districts when projects move through review.

Council concerns and technical issues: Council members raised dashboard usability items — missing map lines/dots and filters that reset when drilling into project details. Bridal acknowledged known GIS rendering issues (lines versus dots) and said staff expect fixes by the end of the week and will notify council when maps reflect district lines and project geometry correctly. Amanda Sawyer (District 5) and others asked that transportation and long‑linear park projects appear as lines rather than single dots so constituents can readily find nearby work.

Fiscal context: Deputy Chief Financial Officer Stephanie Sheriannis Adams told council the city has maintained strong bond ratings and continues to engage rating agencies as it issues bonds. "We continue to get the highest bond ratings," Adams said, adding that maintaining strong ratings helps lower borrowing costs so more of bond dollars go to projects.

Next steps: Staff said they will bring the first affordable housing proposal to council (Scarborough noted an upcoming item expected to come forward in early April) and will return to brief council quarterly (next scheduled appearance June 30). The dashboard URL shown during the meeting is available from the city's Vibrant Bonds page; staff said they will circulate an update when map rendering and district filters are corrected.

Sources: Presentation and Q&A with Patrick Bridal, Nick Marion and Molly Scarborough during the March 31 joint meeting; fiscal remarks from Deputy CFO Stephanie Sheriannis Adams.