It's time for this bi-weekly meeting of the Finance and Business Committee of Denver City Council.

Join us for the Finance and Business Committee.

Starting now.

All right.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Finance and Business Committee.

Today is Tuesday, March 10th.

And my name is Sadana Gonzalez Cutierez.

I'm one of your council members at large and chair of this lovely committee.

And we're joined by our fellow council members.

We'll go ahead and do introductions.

So with that said, I will start to my left.

Good morning, Darrell Watson, Fine District 9.

Good morning, Paul Cashman, South Denver District 6.

Good morning, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver, District 4.

Denver's perfect 10.

All right.

Well, we are joined here today to talk about the Metropolitan District 1, the Bellevue Station.

And so we're going to have a brief presentation followed by an executive session.

And so we'll go ahead and turn it over to our folks here to provide a presentation.

If you can please introduce yourselves and proceed with your presentation.

And if there are questions based on the presentation, and council members remember, we will be breaking into executive session following this.

So on to you.

Hi.

Hello, everyone.

I'm John Norloff.

I'm the new assessor replacing Keith Earth, my longtime assessor.

So with me today is uh Josh Bushner.

I'm the commercial manager in the assessor's office.

He asked me not to call in the subject matter expert, but I'm going to call in the subject matter expert on this.

This is our working relationship.

So with that, uh we are here today uh to talk about House Bill 25 1289, which was enacted uh regarding uh metropolitan district leases and property tax exemptions.

Um background is such that if well the assessor's office uh we locate, appraise, and record all of Denver's real and personal property in accordance with Colorado Constitution, state statutes, and the Board of Equalization Procedures.

Um this bill uh was uh believe bipartisan introduced uh by these representatives and it created new requirements for privately owned uh real estate lease to metropolitan districts seeking a property tax exemption.

Uh generally property used for a public purpose that is leased to a government entity is exempt from paying property tax for that portion of the property used for a public purpose.

Um this bill increased required transparency and closes a property tax loophole such that if the board members of a metropolitan district also own the underlying property being leased to the metropolitan district.

Certain information must be shared with the city and city council determines whether the leases are being used for a public purpose or not, and the subject to taxation or not.

Uh the information the new law requires when a conflict arises, the metro district's use of the leased property, the metro district's authority to use the leased property for metro district purposes, any use of the leased property by a private person for private purposes, and written disclosures by members of the Metro District's board of directors for any potential conflicts of interest.

Uh will be handled by the assessor's office on an ongoing annual basis.

Uh we have a number of exemptions that we look at every year.

Uh so uh going forward, any of these would be added to that list for review.

The exemption will remain valid as long as the exempt use exists.

The exemption would remain valid as long as the exempt use exists, and if the exempt use ends before the end of the lease term, the exemption should end as well.

Uh the four leases that are going to be before you today, uh as was mentioned.

This is in uh Bellevue Station, uh, right off of I-25 in Bellevue.

Um there are four leases that encompass uh multiple parcels.

The first lease is for two parcels for being used as a dog park, uh paid parking lot, and an open air entertainment venue and beer garden.

The second lease is related to a number of parcels being used as a nature trail.

The third lease is for uh storage and parking for construction materials and equipment, and the fourth lease is is the same, three different parcels being used for uh storage and parking of construction materials and equipment.

Um and so you all aware of the legislative timeline.

Uh this is based on when the uh leases and disclosures were submitted to the assessor's office.

Um today is Tuesday, March 10th, and then uh going through the 17th and the 23rd and Monday, April 2nd, would be the legislative deadline to adopt a resolution based on the 63 days.

And I think that was oops.

Was that it for this part?

I believe so.

Yeah.

Great.

Um looking at council members in the queue.

I have councilwoman Sawyer to start us off with questions.

Thanks.

Um thanks you guys for this information, really appreciate it.