Residents of master-planned community in Colorado town poised to control majority of metro district boards

Residents in The Meadows are poised to take control of the majority of their metro district boards ahead of Tuesday's special district board election. The Meadows is a master-planned community located south of U.S. 85 and west of Interstate 25 in Castle Rock.

In February, CBS Colorado revealed how $70 million in metro district bond debt from the 1980s -- intended to pay off infrastructure for The Meadows neighborhood -- has now ballooned to more than $434 million, despite homeowners paying property taxes to their metro district for decades. After that report, dozens of homeowners in the neighborhood were called to action.

The metro district board elections are Tuesday, May 6. Out of The Meadows' seven metro districts, five of them won't be having an election because there were not more candidates than seats available.

But if you live in Districts 2 or 6, you should already have received a ballot in the mail.

Even though the election is not until next week, it's already apparent which of The Meadows' seven metro districts residents will control, and which will keep a developer presence.

"The problem is the tax is never going to go away. It's never going to get paid off," said Jim Garcia, Meadows resident and realtor.

Since CBS Colorado first spoke with Garcia about his community's massive debt, many of his neighbors decided to run for their metro district board.

"We have probably over 200 people," Garcia said. "So we had a lot of interest."

In Districts 1, 3 and 7, five or fewer residents ran, so elections were canceled and residents running will automatically take control of those boards Tuesday.

Districts 2 and 6 will also be controlled by residents, but since more than five are running, the election will determine which neighbors are on the board.

"That's a great win there," Garcia said.

Elections have also been canceled in Districts 4 and 5, where the developer will keep a presence.

"We had, I believe, 12 to 14 people who applied to be on Board 4, and every one of them was rejected," Garcia said.

Come Tuesday, two developer-affiliated candidates will represent District 4, the master district, because of a court order excluding all but one parcel of land owned by the developer.

"We're still being blocked. I mean, there's no reason why the residents shouldn't be able to be on those boards," Garcia said.

Those same two candidates will sit on Board 5, along with two Meadows residents.

"On five, we had a number of people submit, and we were told a lot of people didn't qualify," Garcia said.

He says other District 5 residents who tried to run were denied because they were not registered to vote in the district but elsewhere in Colorado.

"As a resident, you had to be registered to vote at that address, yes, but if you're a property owner, you are registered to vote where you reside, which could be anywhere in the state," said Micki Mills, paralegal at Collins Cockrel & Cole and expert on special district elections.

Mills says the issue with those residents is that they are renting and not property owners. She says in order to be an eligible voter or candidate in metro district elections, you must either be a resident of the district registered to vote there, a property owner in the district registered to vote somewhere in Colorado, the spouse of a property owner, or under contract to purchase property in the district. Property owners do not need to be residents.

A designated election official appointed by the metro district board will conduct elections for Meadows Districts 2 and 6. The DEO is a paralegal with the law firm that represents the districts.

"The designated election official appoints election judges, and the election judges count the ballots, and they're the only ones in the room, other than watchers, who can count the ballots," Mills said.

Mills says there are no specific requirements regarding who the appointed DEO can be.

"There have been many state law changes from when The Meadows was originally formed, which was more than 40 years ago," said Kyle Thomas, managing director at D.A. Davidson Development Finance.

Thomas directs an investment bank that funds many of Colorado's metro districts. He says, today, there are more resident protections in place, including election transparency and debt caps.

"You wouldn't see that same scenario as The Meadows, and ... that was an example that caused the state to really change the laws," Thomas said.

But for Meadows residents, Thomas says their best recourse now is to negotiate with the debt holder.

"It really comes down to likely a negotiation between that debt holder and the district to come to terms for how can we put together a plan of finance to actually pay this debt back," Thomas explained.  "Because once it gets to a certain size and has compounding interest, it's unlikely to repay without some sort of negotiation. But I can't speak specifics to that specific debt because I haven't been involved in that."

"I think with people controlling the boards, we can make more change. We'll be in control of our own destiny a little bit more," Garcia said.

Garcia hopes that with residents controlling five of The Meadows' seven boards, they can dig deeper into the bond debt.

"It was a $57 million project that's going to cost the taxpayers about a billion dollars to pay off. So I think we need to take a look at, see what happened," Garcia said.

Meadows residents who are voting must return ballots by mail or in person to the law offices of Spencer Fane in Denver by Tuesday.

According to the election notice, "Eligible electors may apply for new or replacement mail ballots and return voted mail ballots to the office of the Designated Election Official ('DEO') which is also the ballot drop-off/walk-in voting location: at Spencer Fane LLP, 1700 Lincoln Street, Suite 2000, Denver, Colorado 80203. The office of the DEO is open Monday through Friday between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. from April 14, 2025, through May 5, 2025, and from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on May 6, 2025 (Election Day). Please contact the office of the DEO at (303) 839-3800 to coordinate walk-in voting or drop off of ballots."

May 6 is the election date for all of Colorado's special districts, so even if you don't live in The Meadows, there could be an election affecting your tax dollars next week.