NOREEN: Urban renewal mess a communications failure
It’s hard to make good decisions when key pieces of information are not in front of you.
Since September the Colorado Springs City Council and Mayor Steve Bach have been asked to make decisions on urban renewal projects — The Vineyards near the World Arena and the Ivywild School south of downtown.
When pondering these projects it would have been, uh, useful for the officials to know that the revenues in the University Village urban renewal project were lagging and that the Urban Renewal Authority would be forced to default on the project’s bonds in December. The mayor and the council were kept in the dark about University Village’s difficulties, which had to have been apparent months ago.
In late September the council voted to create a new taxing district for The Vineyards. That would create the revenue stream so debt could be incurred for that project.
If the council had been told then that revenues were not sufficient to pay off University Village’s bonds, would the council have created a new taxing district for another urban renewal project?
Probably not.
The Ivywild deal, which creates a brewery-restaurant in a vacant school, is much smaller. But when Bach and his staff saw that the Urban Renewal Authority wanted to impose astronomical fees for it, they said ‘no.’ It looked like the city was dragging its feet on a deal everyone supported and the mayor was criticized in this space.
A columnist forgot the sage advice, printed on his own coffee cup, that says “it’s not what you don’t know that will hurt you; it’s what you think you know that isn’t so.”
So this is an official apology, Mr. Mayor. You were not made aware of crucial information on the Ivywild deal until late in the game and when you were, you did exactly the right thing.
If you have some residual anger for the columnist, that’s understandable. If you and the council are angry with the Urban Renewal Authority, that would be understandable, too.
Councilwoman Jan Martin said Thursday’s headline about the bond default was a nasty surprise.
If she had known about the impending default, Martin said “I’m sure I would have asked questions when we talked about Ivywild last week. It calls for us to talk with the urban renewal folks.”
Councilwoman Brandy Williams said the Urban Renewal Authority was wrong not to spread the word about the impending default.
“I would have wanted to know as soon as they knew,” Williams said. “It doesn’t breed trust in the future.”
Councilwoman Angela Dougan: “I support a complete investigation of Urban Renewal.”
Councilman Scott Hente, who sits on the Urban Renewal Board for the council, couldn’t remember when he first learned of University Village’s financial problems, but insisted that “There’s never been an effort to conceal information.”
Well, let’s put it another way: When University Village went into default in December, there was no news release for the media, no emails to elected officials. The information was buried in the minutes of an urban renewal board meeting, but no one drew attention to it.
Another disturbing aspect is that there is a discernible trend here. Last year the city wanted another urban renewal project, Copper Ridge. It included land outside the city limits, so it needed the approval of the El Paso County commissioners.
The commissioners hired an analyst to look at the revenue projections for Copper Ridge, and the analyst said the revenue projections were too optimistic. The commissioners rejected the deal.
“We weren’t sure that the financials came out as well,” Commissioner Sallie Clark said. “We were concerned the numbers didn’t add up to make it pay.”
Clark, who once was a City Council member, wondered at the fact that council members weren’t kept in the loop on University Village
“When things are going south there needs to be communication,” she said.
Over-estimated revenue at University Village. Similar questions on Copper Ridge. Sky-high fees at Ivywild.
It looks like it’s time for the mayor and the City Council to administer some tough love to the Urban Renewal Authority.
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Listen to Barry Noreen on KRDO NewsRadio 105.5 FM and 1240 AM at 6:35 a.m. on Fridays. Look for blog updates at gazette.comblogs, barrysblog and his videos at gazette.com/barry
