AURORA | City lawmakers seem to be parking their dreams, and that’s a good thing.
The vision for the area around Aurora’s Iliff Avenue light rail station includes 600 parking spaces and mixed-use development. Parking at light rail stations and RTD Park-N-Rides is often a problem, and local officials say they want to avoid problems later by addressing them now.
Aurora City Council members got one step closer to that vision at a meeting June 17, when they agreed to give future developers tax breaks to build parking and other projects around the station.
Council members, acting as Aurora Urban Renewal Authority commissioners, agreed at the meeting to declare the area surrounding the Iliff Station as blight. That designation paves the way for an urban renewal area.
State laws allow the use of tax-increment financing in urban renewal areas, which means developers can keep new, incremental tax revenues created when a project is developed, and reinvest that money into the project instead of giving it to the city.
“This is a good example of the use of the (urban renewal) tool to encourage transit-oriented development,” said Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan.
He hopes future developers will take advantage of the tax-increment financing tool to finance a structured, multi-level parking lot and other business and retail projects around the Iliff Station.
He said urban renewal could also be used to lure development projects around the Aurora City Center Station, the Colfax Station and the Fitzsimons Parkway Station that Regional Transportation District officials want to realign from Montview Boulevard.
RTD’s original plan for the Iliff Station included the construction of 600 surface parking spaces. City officials say surface parking would take up too much space and not allow any room for other development projects. The urban renewal tool could help potential developers build structured, multi-level parking lot and still allow room for other projects.
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.