Title
A Resolution of the City of Colorado Springs approving an amended and restated Service Plan for the Bradley Ranch Metropolitan District located generally southeast of the intersection of Old Ranch Road and North Union Boulevard.
Council District #2
Presenter:
Allison Stocker, Senior Planner, City Planning Department
Kevin Walker, Planning Director, City Planning Department
Body
Summary:
This request would allow the Bradley Ranch Metropolitan (“District”) to amend and restate the District’s service plan. The District was created in 2006 to help develop three hundred and fifty-nine (359) single-family detached units near the intersection of Old Ranch Road and North Union Boulevard. Since this time, the development activities and other site improvements have all been completed per the current service plan (refer to Resolution 130-06). The District’s board has been filled by landowners who live within the District and there are no planned future development activities or bond issuances. With that, the purpose of amending and restating the service plan is to bring the service plan into compliance with the City’s current model service plan, allowing the District to increase their operations and maintenance mill levy from the current 10 mills to 22 mills, and remove information from the service plan that pertain to future development activities.
Background:
The District has provided public improvements and operation and maintenance services for the service area as specified in the District Boundaries Map (refer to Exhibit C) which contains approximately one hundred and twenty-six (126) acres. The District’s purpose was to plan, design, engineer, finance, and refinance costs associated with providing the public improvements and services necessary to support the project. The service plan also managed the financing and construction of public improvements and provided any necessary administrative functions and ongoing services as authorized by the service plan. Since the completion of development and property owner’s taking over the District’s Board, there has been interest in making several changes to support the District’s transition into the latter stages of the District’s purpose and functions.
The Board is requesting several changes as part of the proposed amended and restated service plan, which includes:
• Replacing the approved 2006 District Service Plan (old Model Service Plan) with an amended and restated Service Plan based on the City’s 2022 Model Service Plan.
• Increase the operations and maintenance mill levy from 10 mills to 22 mills and change the assessment rates to be based on 2022 assessment values.
• Replace the 2006 Finance Plan with the 2024 Audited Financial Statements.
• Removal of Model Service Plan language not relevant to the built-out District.
The District’s current service plan was approved in 2006 (Resolution 130-06) under the City’s old Special District’s policies. Due to the extent of changes proposed to the service plan, the service plan is required to be amended and restated to be brought into compliance with the City’s Model Service Plan. The Petitioner has provided a redlined version of the 2022 Model Service Plan that shows which components of that plan are consistent with the proposed amended and restated service plan. A majority of the changes shown in the redlined version are omissions of definitions and other information regarding ongoing and future development. These omissions are made in an effort to reduce the amount of irrelevant information included in the service plan since the District has completed all planned development. These omissions were not found to conflict with the purpose of the District’s service plan and will help landowners within the District better understand the District’s future role in providing maintenance services.
A key reason why the Petitioner is seeking to amend and restate the Service Plan is due to the need to increase the operations and maintenance mill levy for the District. The homeowners within the District would like to reduce the number of sanitation and trash services that provide services to the homeowners within the District. By raising the operation and maintenance mill levy, the District will be able to fund trash services for the entire District. By reducing the number of trash service providers to a single company, the District will be able to reduce the number of heavy vehicles navigating the District’s public roads and reduce wear-and-tear on the roads. The increase from ten (10) mills to twenty-two (22) mills would exceed the maximum operations and maintenance mill levy per the City’s 2022 Model Service Plan. However, given that the request is being made by the landowning member Board and exceeds the City’s Model Service Plan maximum of twenty (20) mills by only two (2) mills, the deviation can be viewed as a rational alteration.
The maximum debt authorization for the District has been $30,000,000 throughout the life of the District. Given that the District has been entirely built out and does not anticipate the need to issue additional debt, the District has elected to lower the maximum debt authorization. The outstanding debt held by the District is approximately $8.4 million, so the District has elected to lower their debt limit to $10 million. Since the existing bonds were issued under the City’s old Model Service Plan, the bonds were based on the 2006 assessment rates. To avoid any conflict with the outstanding financial instruments, the District will retain the old Model Service Plan’s debt mill levy parameters. This will keep the debt mill levy set at a maximum of thirty (30) mills and continue using the 2006 assessment rates.
Financial Implications:
There are no direct implications to general City taxpayers and ratepayers outside of the boundaries of these applicable metropolitan districts.
Board/Commission Recommendations:
N/A
Stakeholder Process:
The staff-level Special District Committee has been provided with access to these materials associated with this request. As of the date of this staff report, there have been no comments or questions from the Committee on this request.
Previous Council Action:
This item was heard by Council on the September 22nd, 2025, work session agenda.
Alternatives:
City Council has the options of approving or denying this amended and restated service plan. Council could also continue the item with specific direction provided to staff and the petitioners.
Recommended Action
Proposed Motion:
Adopt a resolution of the City of Colorado Springs approving an amended and restated Service Plan for the Bradley Ranch Metropolitan District located generally southeast of the intersection of Old Ranch Road and North Union Boulevard.