Get Metro Update Emails – If someone wants to be added to our email list, send an email request to: MeadowsMetro@gmail.com
1) May 6th Elections – There are 7 metro bond districts in The Meadows. Property owners took control away from Castle Rock Development Company of Boards 2,3,6,&7. For the first time ever, property owner’s now control 5 of the 7 districts. Meadows Metro District 1 is controlled by the property owners, myself and 4 other owners.
District 4 – Developers would not volunteer to step down and allow property owners to control this board. According to our new legal team, the structure to prevent District 4, the “Master District”, property owners from representing that board has never been broken in Colorado. It is a standard legal maneuver used in metro bond structures, so developers don’t ever lose control. It prevents property owners from representing themselves to pay off this debt/tax. A solution is being reviewed by our legal experts. Castle Rock Development Company continues to have board control, which handles 100% of all of the tax revenue. This needs to be corrected.
District 5 added 2 residents. 2 developers remain with 1 vacant seat. Developers would not volunteer to step down. There is a plan to take control of that board by adding a 3rd resident, so we have a 3-2 majority (and possibly all 5 seats) after their first meeting.
2) Legal Team – After extensive interviews with different attorney’s, I have negotiated terms with different legal experts, who have agreed to work together as one team to represent our interests. They have diverse backgrounds with a deep understanding our complex structure, Colorado metro bonds, litigation, and access to other legal experts as needed.
3) Funding – Metro District Board 1 approved $100k in funding on May 12th from our operating budget to pay for legal expenses for a Phase 1 analysis for District 1 to include a full review of our bonds and potential options for remedy. Our goal is to understand why we are being forced to pay $1 billion in property taxes for a $57m project, and are there any remedies. Contract has been negotiated, signed, paid, and the report should be available to the board in August.
4) New Board Meetings – We need all new boards to get registered with an initial meeting ASAP, so they are in place with an operating government when we begin getting information from our new legal team. Each board represents different areas with different bond issues that will need to be addressed as one community. Castle Rock, Douglas County, and the State of Colorado have made it clear that they will not help us. It is our debt, our problem, and our issue. The Town of Castle Rock set up this mess, and now they won’t have anything to do with helping us.
5) Cost – This property tax is 1/3 of everyone’s bill for all 7,500 properties in The Meadows. If this tax can be eliminated or reduced, that would be a significant savings to everyone. Most residential owners pay about $2,000-$2,500 per year every year for this tax. Commercial owners pay a much higher amount, which places a larger burden on them and affects the prices they must charge us in the end.
6) Bond Payments/Taxes – Our taxes are capped at a mill rate of 35 and will never change by law. i.e., Our tax rate will never go up. All bond payments continue to be paid and will continue to be paid. There is NO effect on properties, property values, taxes, liens, etc. in The Meadows with our inquiries. We just want to know why it will take 100 years of property taxes to pay off the 1985 infrastructure cost.
7) Mis-Information – There is a lot of mis-information being spread. Rest assured, that everything is continuing with no change as it has for the past 40 years. BUT this tax will never end in our lifetime on its’ present course. Please help curtail the false rumors. Here is a link with the facts for folks to understand and pass along. The Meadows HOA has NOTHING to do with this effort. They are a separate organization from the Castle Rock Bonds.
https://jimgarciahomes.com/the-meadows-metro-bond-property-tax-facts/
8) Read the bond documents – If you would like to read the legal filings, bond documents, and financial information yourself, it is listed in dropbox folder in this article. It has taken me over 5 years to accumulate this information, which has been hidden since the 1980s. Here is the link.
Thank you,
Jim Garcia