Local Improvement Districts (LIDS)

For a petition to start the process, click here.

LOCAL IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
PROCESS

So you have a group of property owners that want to pursue a local improvement district in your subdivision to create or upgrade infrastructure and you need to know the who, what, why, where, when, and how to do it.  Hopefully, this cheat sheet will provide the necessary information to answer these questions.

There are two parts to the who item: who says we can do a local improvement district and who is in the district?  The Colorado Revised Statutes give county governments the authority to establish local improvement districts (LID’s) and assess the benefiting property owners the cost of constructing the improvements.  As to who is in the district, this can get complicated.  Generally speaking a LID covers one or more subdivisions.  Engineering staff will work with you to develop a logical boundary limit for the district depending on what improvements are being considered which is a nice lead into the next part, What improvements can be done with a LID?  

The following improvements can be done with a LID:

Road construction	Road paving
Drainage Improvements	Sidewalks
Street Lights	Burying existing overhead utilities
Central sewer	Central water

LID cannot be used to bring in new phone, electric power, gas, or television cable service to an area.

Why do you want to do a LID?  Use of the LID process provides a relatively easy way to finance and construct improvements in a subdivision and at the same time insures everyone receiving benefit pays their fair share of the costs to construct the improvements. 

OK, your group is still interested and you want to do at least one of the items that are covered by the LID process.  Where do we go from here?  Well first, your group will have to do some legwork to show Summit County that there is more than just a passing interest by two or three property owners that the improvements are wanted.  First, you will need to meet with the Engineering Department to develop the limits of the district.  Once the district boundaries are established, the Engineering Department will develop a preliminary cost estimate for the project.  This cost estimate will be attached to the petition.  Second, using the general language in the attached petition plus the specifics related to your request, you will circulate the petition among the property owners that would benefit from the improvements and obtain signatures from at least 60% of the owners of the benefiting properties.  For example if there are 100 benefiting properties, at least 60 of the property owners must sign the petition. 

Believing your cause is just, you’ve accepted the County’s challenge and got the petitions signed with the requisite number of signatures and brought the petitions to the Engineering Department for review and verification.  So what do you have to do now?  Good News! You’re done for now.  The County staff takes over from here.  Staff will send out a letter to the property owners informing the owners Summit County has received petitions requesting the establishment of a LID and that a public hearing has been set by the Board of County Commissioners to determine if a LID should be formally established.  The actual time, place, and location will be included in the letter. 

After the LID has been established, staff will draft the formal ballot language so this item can be voted on in the November General Election.  This election is required per the provisions of Amendment #1 or the taxpayer’s bill of rights (TABOR) because the County will technically be incurring debt to fund the LID.  The people eligible to vote on this issue will be any registered Colorado voter who owns property within the district or any registered voter in Summit County whose legal residence is within the boundaries of the district.  So, you may live in Alabama and lease your home here to a group of people working in the County.  If they are registered voters they can vote but you can’t vote.  As with all elections, the outcome is based upon a simple majority of the votes cast.       

After the election, things get fairly routine, but here is a general timeline of events:

Year 1 Establish LID and have November election

Year 2 Hire an engineering firm to develop design and construction drawings

Year 3 February: Bid project for construction and construction mgmt.

• June: Start construction
• September: Complete construction
• October: Set final per lot assessment based on actual costs

Year 4 Pay first installment of assessment as noted on property tax bill

This timeline is dependent on the scope and complexity of the work plus outside forces such as the amount of other construction that is occurring within the County.

So the only question left is: when does that petition need to be into the County?  To allow sufficient time to develop a scope of work, draft a letter to the property owners, meet public noticing requirements, and place an item on the November ballot, the petition must be in the County’s hands by the end of May if the ballot question is going to be included in the November General Election of the same year.

As always, staff is more than willing to answer any questions that may arise.

For a petition form to start the process for a Local Improvement District, click here.