Denver's Cherry Creek neighborhood could be next to establish general improvement district

CBS News

2 days ago

Another Denver neighborhood is hoping to take it upon itself to address community issues.
There are currently five general improvement districts in Denver, with more potentially on the horizon, including Cherry Creek. Regardless of the neighborhood, more and more Denverites are seeking services beyond what the city offers.
Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer spearheaded the efforts to gauge interest in a special district in Cherry Creek based on feedback she received from constituents
"I started kind of looking into how I could get them what they say they want. Right?" Sawyer told CBS Colorado. "And that is kind of where I came to this tool."
There are four buckets of interest collected so far.
"The first one is community safety," Sawyer said.
In addition to things such as Flock cameras and better lighting, residents have said they want help with the parking situation, neighborhood advocacy and beautification.
"Whether that looks like snow removal or whether that looks like flowerpots on a corner, I don't know that's for the residents to kind of decide what they want to do," Sawyer said.
The proposed general improvement district would include the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, Cherry Creek North, Cherry Creek East and a triangle just south of the area. Based on initial survey results, there is enough interest in the concept to move forward with creating a final plan. But whether that plan goes to a vote will remain up to residents.
"If the residents don't want to do this at the end of the day, then, I don't think we do this," Sawyer said. "It's certainly way too expensive to go to petition and gather signatures and go to a TABOR election for something that residents don't want."
Cherry Creek North already has a business improvement district, but those businesses would not be a part of and pay into both improvement districts. A final plan is expected to be formulated by residents and presented for feedback at the beginning of the New Year.
How the GID would be funded is also up to residents, who are already saying they're not interested in a tax hike.
"What we're not going to do is do this as a property tax," Sawyer said. "We're going to do this in a different way because I think we've heard from the community that that uncertainty is something they're uncomfortable with."