Aurora moves forward with East Colfax revitalization district amid transparency worries

AURORA | Aurora lawmakers moved forward with a timeline for creating a board and plan details for the new East Colfax Downtown Development Authority, while some residents were critical of the process so far.

“I’m concerned about the DDA, there has been no transparency,” Ellen Woo, Aurora resident, said during Monday’s council meeting. “You need to look for the transparency. You need to look for the guidelines. You need to look for the structure of how that’s going to work. There is corruption that is coming through.”

City Council members, during Monday’s study session, outlined the next steps for appointing the inaugural board of the East Colfax Downtown Development Authority, a voter-approved special district designed to drive long-term reinvestment and revitalization along the Colfax corridor.

The discussion focused on how the city will form the DDA’s first governing board, a legally required step before any redevelopment funding or projects can move forward, Laura Perry, deputy city manager, said.

What is the DDA?

A DDA is a special district created under state law and approved by Aurora voters in November within a defined geographic boundary, which includes a few blocks on either side of East Colfax Avenue from Yosemite to Oswego streets. 

Once formed, the DDA can use tax increment financing to reinvest future increases in property and sales tax revenue back into the district, funding projects such as infrastructure improvements, redevelopment, housing and small-business support.

Aurora voters within the district boundary approved two ballot questions on Nov. 4, establishing the DDA itself, and allowing the district to retain tax increment revenue under Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights, known as TABOR.

“No action can occur by the DDA or on behalf of the DDA until the board is appointed and the plan of development is approved by city council,” Perry said.

The DDA is expected to work in tandem with a Community Development Corporation, or a CDC, which is a nonprofit entity that can operate more flexibly and access grants, donations and other funding sources separate from the tax increment revenue.

While the DDA’s authority is limited by statute and focused largely on infrastructure, economic development, housing, and business support within its boundaries, Perry said. A CDC can provide services such as workforce development, affordable housing initiatives and broader community programming. 

The CDC’s boundary is also much larger than the DDA, which only spans from East 14th to East 16th avenues. The CDC boundary will run from East 11th Avenue to Montview Boulevard, and from Yosemite to Peoria streets. 

How will the board work?

Eligibility for board service and voting is tied directly to the boundary. By contrast, the CDC’s service area can extend well beyond it, making coordination between the two entities central to the city’s long-term strategy for East Colfax, Perry said. 

The CDC will be formed concurrently with the DDA, with consulting firm Progressive Urban Management Associates, which calls itself PUMA, assisting in that process. PUMA is the group that built the framework for the DDA and CDC. Outreach and application submissions for potential DDA and CDC board members are expected to begin early next year.

The future DDA board will inherit a draft Colfax Vision and Action Plan developed through extensive community engagement. According to city documents, the plan incorporates more than 1,200 community inputs, over 2,400 website visits, multilingual outreach efforts and multiple public meetings.

The draft plan lays out six core goal areas for the corridor, including public space maintenance, housing stability, economic development and arts and culture. The plan is intended to guide investment and decision-making over the next 10 to 20 years and will be formally reviewed by the inaugural DDA board before being brought to city council for approval.

How will the board be created?

The East Colfax DDA board will consist of up to 11 members. City staff recommended that city council appoint seven of those members, including one sitting council member, leaving six community representative seats needing to be filled.

The remaining seats would allow flexibility for future appointments, including up to two members drawn from the CDC board to encourage coordination between the two organizations, City Manager Jason Batchelor said. 

State law requires that board members be at least 18 years old and have a connection to the district, including as residents, property owners, business owners or managers of businesses within the boundary. A majority of the board must live in or own property within the district.

Staff recommended aligning the inaugural appointment process with Aurora’s existing boards and commissions procedures, with Perry citing it as best practice among other Colorado cities. Those practices include a transparent application process, public interviews and formal city council involvement.

Applications will open with multilingual outreach to encourage broad participation. All applications will be reviewed for legal eligibility before advancing to public interviews conducted by a nomination committee composed of the mayor, the mayor pro tem, a deputy city manager, and a representative from PUMA as an advisor. 

Public interviews are tentatively scheduled for late February or early March.

Councilmember Françoise Bergan asked if there was a way to limit or monitor public letters of nomination and comments to ensure fairness and prevent disproportionate influence, or a “win by popularity contest.” 

Councilmember Gianina Horton added a requirement for three references as part of the application process, given that applicants will be making such impactful decisions about people’s lives.  

“These are individuals who are making extraordinary decisions on lots of lives and businesses,” Horton said. “So having documentation that their character, ethics and commitment are sound.”

During the discussion, council members emphasized the importance of intentional representation on the inaugural board, including renters and residents who live in the corridor — not just property and business owners.

While state statute sets eligibility requirements and limits what a DDA can do, city council retains discretion in appointments and can prioritize diversity of experience, background and perspective within those constraints, Perry said. 

Horton also asked that people, including renters and anyone who was missing in the passage of the DDA, be recruited and included in outreach for board members and additional input for the DDA

Before the DDA can spend any funds, the city council will need to appoint the board, approve the plan of development, and accept an operating plan and budget, which will all be a public process. 

According to the proposed timeline, the board will not hold its first meeting until April or May 2026, and the first organizational meetings will not occur until the second quarter. The Plan of Development will be finalized, and a draft and final first-year operating plan and budget will be developed in the third quarter. 

Concerns from residents

Residents such as Woo told city council members Monday they are concerned about a lack of transparency and said they were not made aware of the election or the previous community outreach. Woo and Robin, another person who spoke during public comment, said they were also concerned about gentrification and even potential corruption. 

Woo said she was concerned about Mayor Mike Coffman donating $10,000 to the DDA campaign committee. The committee also received $5,000 in donations from One Main Street, a dark-money group with anonymous donors that primarily backs center-left political candidates in Colorado, and $640 from libertarian Councilmember Curtis Gardner, who was endorsed by One Main Street in the 2023 election for At-Large city council. This was all done transparently through election finances, and Coffman and Gardner have been longtime advocates for reviving the East Colfax Corridor. 

Although residents, including the two speakers on Monday, said they did not hear about the outreach during the first steps of the process, the remaining steps all require transparency through the city.