Cherry Creek North residents want Denver neighborhood removed from improvement district conversations
In July, CBS Colorado reported on the potential for a Cherry Creek General Improvement District, and received several emails from concerned Cherry Creek North residents saying they want their Denver neighborhood removed from the conversation.
"Neither of these postcards say on here, we're going to tax you for this, anything that you want on this, you're going to be paying for," said Dana Busch as she showed mailers regarding the GID that she felt lacked important information about the project.
Residents invited CBS Colorado over for a conversation. What was originally supposed to be with three people quickly turned into a dozen.
"We didn't even publicize this, so I can only imagine how many people would have shown up had we publicized this," said Busch.
The neighbors coming together with a common goal.
"Our group is advocating to have our residential area pulled out," said Busch.
When asked if the group knows if any of their neighbors in Cherry Creek North are in support of the potential GID, Busch responded "zero." Residents Wayne New and Greg Jenkins added that they haven't met anyone, either.
As it stands, the proposed improvement district would include Cherry Creek Shopping Center, Cherry Creek North, Cherry Creek East and a triangle just south of the area.
"Each area should have the right to decide whether they want to be part of this larger project or not," said Busch. "We do not need this, and yet, when you look at this map, we're making up about two thirds of the dollar of the residential cost."
The group believes Cherry Creek North doesn't need or want the GID and shouldn't be looped in with other nearby neighborhoods. They even created a website called stopthegidinccn.com to help their cause. A greater concern they say, is that they could be footing the bill for projects outside their area.
"We're just really concerned, not only that our residents don't have a strong voice about what's happening with their tax money, how is it really going to make an improvement that makes a difference for our quality of life?" said Wayne New, who previously represented the area as a Denver City Councilman.
City Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer represents the area and hired a consultant to look into the concept. They surveyed neighbors and found 65% were not interested in exploring a GID for Cherry Creek. Despite those results, the plan is moving forward.
"They want to spend more of our taxpayer money on something that we've already said no to," said Greg Jenkins.
The next phase puts residents into working groups to brainstorm ideas about what a GID could entail. Nearly all dozen of the residents present for the conversation said they signed up to lead a working group, while only one said she heard back.
"We've always had a voice in our neighborhood," said New. "All of a sudden, now an advisory board, almost like a bureaucratic organization, is being developed over all of us, and whether we'll have a voice again, as strongly we had in the past, we don't know. So, it's a big, big concern to all of us."
When CBS Colorado spoke with Councilwoman Sawyer about the project, she was adamant that if residents ultimately don't want this GID, then they won't move forward with a petition or work to get it on the ballot.
Four community meetings are planned in September to talk about the potential improvement district.
