The largest neighborhood of this Colorado city is $434M in debt. Neighbors are now seeking board control.
It's Castle Rock's largest neighborhood. But many of its residents likely don't know they're paying more than some neighboring communities in taxes.
The Meadows is a master-planned community located south of U.S. 85 and west of Interstate 25 in Castle Rock.
A CBS News Colorado investigation is taking a closer look at the community's metro districts and the bond debt that homeowners' taxes are paying.
If you've checked your mailbox recently, you may have found your property tax bill. If you live in The Meadows, you'll see how much you paid your metro district. But where is that money going?
"I've been looking into it for about five years," said Jim Garcia, Meadows resident and real estate agent.
Garcia started digging and learned his community was hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to pay off roads built decades ago.
"The numbers just didn't add up," Garcia said.
According to the Meadows metro districts, they issued $70 million in bonds in 1989 to finance roads and infrastructure in the community.
That debt was to be paid by neighbors to the developer through property taxes.
In 1993, the bonds were restructured when a new developer took over and capped the property tax rate at 35 mills.
"It should have been paid off years ago, and now we have years to go to pay it off," Garcia said.
Documents show this revenue is not enough to pay off interest on the bond as it accumulates.
So despite homeowners paying about a third of their property taxes to the metro districts for decades, the districts' financial statements show the bond debt is approaching half a billion dollars today.
"We always think taxes are going somewhere to benefit us in some way or format. And I'm feeling that these aren't. This is a long-term amount of money that's just going nowhere," Mary Wilson said.
Wilson lives in another Castle Rock neighborhood that she says dissolved its metro district once debts were paid off. She began digging into the situation in The Meadows when she realized she was paying less in taxes than her friends in The Meadows.
"Where were those taxes going, and how were they benefiting Castle Rock?" Wilson asked.
According to financial statements, at the end of 2023, the total outstanding bond debt for the districts was nearly $434 million. Of that, $70 million is the principal, which has never been reduced. The remaining $364 million is interest.
"People are owing more every year, even though they're paying this," Wilson said.
In 2023, the districts collected nearly $14 million from homeowners in property taxes, plus over $1 million in car registrations. But despite that revenue, the debt increased by more than $20 million that year.
"So where is all the money going that these residents have been paying for decades?" CBS Colorado's Olivia Young asked John Henderson.
"I believe it's all going to the developers. It's like a lifetime annuity that pays out, guaranteed by the most secure source of revenue you can imagine -- taxes," Henderson responded.
Henderson helped found Coloradans for Metro District Reform. He says The Meadows is the "poster child" for metro district abuses.
"They can't begin to meet the interest payments that are due. So under the bond agreement that the developers wrote for themselves, the residents can't pay the interest that's due that year, so the unpaid interest continues to be due, plus interest," said Henderson. "It's structured so that the residents will never, ever be able to pay it off. And so the debt is everlasting."
Henderson has spent years advocating for legislation to reform metro districts and increase oversight.
"There's no check and balance at the state level. There's no check and balance at the city/county level," said Henderson.
He says a bill, HB25-1079, recently passed committee in the Colorado General Assembly that would give the Independent Ethics Commission jurisdiction to hear complaints related to special district officials or employees. Henderson says previous attempts to pass state laws like this have been "buried" in the appropriations committee.
The Meadows is split into seven different metro districts that all share the debt. Each one has its own board. District 4 is the master district, while District 1 is the only one that is controlled by residents.
The same names appear over and over again on Boards 2-7, all tied to the parent company of the current developer. Meeting records indicate the board meets at the development company's offices.
"What recourse do residents in The Meadows have at this point?" CBS Colorado's Olivia Young asked Henderson.
"Get on the boards! They have seven boards. Only one board right now is resident-controlled. The key board is Board Four. That's still the master district," Henderson said. "Every single resident in District Four should be running for the board. Get control of that board, cut the head off the snake, and have some accountability."
Garcia says the metro boards have canceled or not publicized elections for years.
"I've lived in The Meadows since 2006 and I haven't heard of any elections for the metro boards," said Garcia. "Previously, I haven't heard about them, or they've been canceled, and the developer has remained on the board. So our push this year is to make sure the elections go forward and we have local residents being put on the board."
Meadows residents can reach out to their metro district to seek an application for the board. Applications are due by the end of February, and elections will take place in May.
