AURORA | Voters supported the creation of a new economic tool in a special election on Nov. 4 to revitalize a key segment of East Colfax Avenue, a project that will now move onto the next chapter, according to a city statement.
The vast majority of residents, business owners and property owners along East Colfax between Yosemite Street and Oswego streets who voted, threw their support behind the creation of a Downtown Development Authority, known as a DDA, that is intended to supercharge efforts, including to improve safety, housing affordability and business opportunities in the small walkable neighborhood, the statement said.
“The authority, known as a DDA, is a governmental entity separate from the city and defined by state statute,” the statement said. “The DDA will be led by a board appointed by the mayor and confirmed by a majority of the city council to oversee the implementation of DDA programs.”
The DDA will use tax-increment financing to fund work along the East Colfax corridor, with a focus on safety, infrastructure, small-business support, housing and economic development, as outlined in the Colfax Community Vision and Action Plan.
The tax increment financing will not create new taxes, but it will instead raise funding by reinvesting the growth in sales and property tax revenue as activity in the DDA area increases over time. So it will take the increased profit from sales and property taxes going forward and collect them into its own fund to revitalize the area.
The boundaries of the East Colfax DDA stretch from Yosemite Street on the western end, to East 16th Avenue to the north, to the Fitzsimons Urban Renewal Area to the east, and to East 14th Avenue to the south, the statement said.
Now that voters within those boundaries have supported this approach, the mayor and city council will be for the authority’s board. Board members will include one city council member and between four and ten members. Those members must be residents, landowners or business lessees within the authority’s boundaries, according to the statement.
“Information will be provided later this year about the city’s application and appointment process for DDA board members,” the statement said.
Over the last year, a draft Colfax Community Vision and Action Plan was developed as a long-term roadmap for revitalizing East Colfax and the surrounding areas of Northwest Aurora, the statement said.
“Grounded in community input, this plan lays out a shared vision for the next 10 to 20 years and outlines practical steps to achieve it,” the statement said.
This draft plan also sets the stage for creating the Downtown Development Authority and a nonprofit Community Development Corporation (CDC), which was chosen by community members and city council last year to complement the DDA.
“Together, these organizations would help create public improvements, support local businesses, and protect the area’s character while promoting economic growth that benefits everyone,” the statement said.
The CDC has a larger boundary area than the DDA and can operate beyond the DDA’s boundaries. It would focus on housing, economic development, advocacy and coordination around area-wide issues. It would be governed by a community-based board and funded through grants, philanthropy, a self-sustaining real estate strategy, and not through the DDA’s tax increment revenue.
The DDA would only start to accumulate “increment tax” revenue over the coming year.
For details about the process and to review the draft version of the Colfax Community Vision & Action plan, please visit engageaurora.org/colfaxplan.
This is excellent. The one on Havana has been great for everyone as far as I know. Someone paying attention to the specific area, keep businesses happy, and the community. Great.
Running it back yet again under a new label. The City is affirming the definition of insanity is to do the same thing again and again hoping for a different outcome. The City has tried Foot Patrol and Bicycle Officers in the area to do community policing. The City has tried a Community Outreach Attorney. The City has done expensive streetscaping up and down the avenue, has invested in an Arts District, and has built a Library/Community Center right on the strip. The City has tried for 40 years to do something with this blighted, crime ridden area flooding it with Code Enforcement Officers and trying the Weed and Seed strategy. They have done everything but to address the root cause. Delapidated and unsafe housing attracts the poor, the disenfrancised, and criminals whose records prevent them from obtaining any other housing. The mix is toxic and self-perpetuating as none of them have the funds to improve or rehabilitate the delapidated properties. It will only be when the delapidated, substandard housing, both single family and multifamily is torn to the ground, removed, and replaced with housing built to modern standards and expectations that the area can rise. Trying to pretend that the Fox Theatre is some historic gem rather than a quonset hut decades beyond its designed life is now sad. Trying to pretend the area has character other than a reputation for poverty and criminality is blindness. Time to recognize the area for what it is, blight which needs to be replaced from the ground up. Alternatively the City can simply accept that along with high income southern and eastern neighborhoods it also has lower income neighborhoods, poverty neighborhoods for the marginilized. Most cities do. Why would Aurora be the exception?
I have to agree with Publius on many of his points. Until the blight is removed from the area things will pretty much stay the same. I have businesses that I deal with on East Colfax and it is only during the daylight hours. You can ladies talking to drivers on the side streets and there is usually some sort of mental case talking to themselves or yelling obscenities at cars as they drive past. I know Aurora just instituted a new homeless policy of working in order to have housing but unfortunately many people living on the streets would never be able to hold down a job.