Lafayette DDA Meeting - June 9, 2025: DDA 101 Training Workshop
STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
Lafayette Downtown Development Authority Meeting - June 9, 2025
The Lafayette Downtown Development Authority (DDA) held its regularly scheduled meeting on June 9, 2025, at 5:00 PM. The meeting primarily consisted of a training workshop facilitated by Downtown Colorado Inc. (DCI) titled "Downtown Development Authorities 101." The board approved the minutes from the May 12, 2025, meeting and received staff updates. No public comments were made.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of May 12, 2025 Meeting Minutes: A motion to approve the minutes as written was made and seconded, and passed unanimously with all directors in favor. No corrections were noted.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public wished to speak, so public input was closed.
Discussion Items
- Downtown Colorado Inc. Training – Downtown Development Authorities 101: Executive Director Bridget Keating introduced the training, noting that the DDA has been engaged in foundational work. DCI’s Kat Corell led the session, providing an overview of DDA tools, including tax increment financing (TIF) and mill levies, and emphasizing the flexibility of DDAs. Three DDA leaders presented case studies:
- Hillary Portel (Englewood DDA): Described Englewood’s DDA, formed in 2021, with three TIF sub-areas (Broadway, wellness district, city center). She highlighted the importance of early institutionalization, an IGA with the city, branding, clean-and-safe programs, and developer engagement focused on public benefits.
- Robin Fleischbroom (former Golden DDA): Explained Golden’s DDA, which uses property tax TIF and a 5-mill levy. She emphasized non-TIF programs like exterior improvement grants, professional services assistance, and the need for constant communication with businesses and residents.
- Kimberly McKee (Longmont DDA): Shared Longmont’s 43-year-old DDA, with a $1.6 million annual TIF. She discussed asset maintenance, stakeholder engagement (block captains, retail committee), catalyst projects (Roosevelt Park Apartments, South Main Station), and lessons learned on developer agreements and public benefit definitions.
- Financial and Policy Insights: Troy Bernberg (Northland Securities) advised on TIF reimbursement agreements, emphasizing performance-based contracts, developer pro forma review, and the importance of separate policies. Nim Patel (Colorado Enterprise Fund) introduced the concept of a revolving loan fund to support small businesses, noting that a $250,000 investment could be matched to create a $500,000 fund.
- Board Q&A: Directors asked about debt authorization, TIF clocks, public benefit definitions, and communication strategies for business owners. The discussion also touched on the role of the DDA in adaptive reuse vs. new development, and the importance of early coordination with city planning and finance departments.
Key Outcomes
- The board will next meet in July with Brad from Puma to workshop the DDA’s plan of development, incorporating lessons learned from the training.
- No other votes or formal decisions were made beyond the approval of the minutes.
- The meeting adjourned at 8:06 PM.
Meeting Transcript
25 meeting of the Lapia Downtown Development Authority. Um, executive director Keating, then we have a roll call vote. Director Barnes, Director Kagan here, Director Hardy, here, Director Hover, here, Director Lako, uh, Director Mundine, present, Director Rogers here, and Director Barnes is taking a time. Okay. Yeah, first on the agenda is public input. If any member of the public wishes to speak, please come to the podium and you'll have five minutes to speak. Seeing no other members who wish to speak, I'll now close public input. We'll now move on to approval of the May 12th, 2025 meeting minutes. Are there any corrections to the minutes? Would someone like to make a motion? Go ahead. I'll make a motion to approve the meeting notes as written. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? Okay, that passes. And now we're moving on to the presentation and workshop. The first agenda item is downtown Colorado Inc. Training, Downtown Development Authorities 101. Carrying over. I'll now turn it over to Executive Director Keating to kick us off. Great. So thank you everyone for being here this evening. Um, as my board knows, we've been taking a lot of time to do some foundational work as we get started. Our first meeting was in April, uh, where we passed a lot of resolutions to get the DDA up and running. In May, we looked back at Laura, our urban renewal authority, and what they've done for the past 25 years. Um, and tonight we're joined here with downtown Colorado Inc. to help us with the training just to get to know DDAs in general, and um, we're joined here with some fabulous uh experts and executive directors from across the state, and so this is really supposed to be a fun casual discussion and jump in throughout, and I'm gonna turn it over to Kat to kick us off and do some introductions. Great, thank you so much, and thanks for having us. Um, my name is Kath Corell, and I'm with Downtown Colorado Inc. We have we were formed in 1982 to help communities look at the different types of tools and to work with the different types of tools that work around your downtown town centers and commercial districts. So we work with business improvement districts, downtown development authorities, and urban renewal authorities, and so we have worked with both the city of Lafayette in the past as well as the Urban Renewal Authority, and we're happy to be here with your downtown development authority. Um we do training, we do facilitated conversations, we have a lot going on, and so I will um let you all know that at you're a member of our organization, and so we have a resource library, we have different trainings going on all the time. So if you want more information, we've got more. Um we did put together some um, I think it's a really interesting program. We work pretty closely with Bridget over the last I don't know, we started talking six months ago now. Um but we've put together some uh stuff. So what we're gonna look at today is really giving you a high-level overview of um what DDAs look like, then we're gonna have lessons learned. We have three different uh DDA leaders here tonight, and then we'll we have financial advisors that work with DDAs as well as partners for communities that are looking to foster a vital downtown core. Um, and so our goal is really to frame this discussion to give you a little bit of background and uh like a high-level look at what DDAs do, and then you can hear specifics about what these DDAs do, and then we should talk about what you want to do. Um, and that is our goal to give you that that overview from around the state, and then at the end we'll debrief and have you share kind of like what is the cream of the crop, what are the things that you heard, what are the things that really sparked your fancy and you would like to see your DEA do. Um with that, I just I I like to share this quote. Um, people are longing for a place not only to live but also to love, and I think the trick about these they're all Title 31 districts. So the statute is Title 31 that enables bids, DDAs, QRAs, and it's all about place-based community and economic development with the idea that you define your geographic area, and what you are doing is not making that okay, you're not doing standards, you're looking for excellence. And it's all about place-based community and economic development with the idea that you define your geographic area, and what you are doing is not making that okay. You're not doing standards, you're looking for excellence. So you want to take it above and beyond, and you want to create places that have a sense of belonging that have that feeling from all of your people in your community that this is a thing. This is this is where we all come together. We share our ideas, we invest our money, we spend our money, we earn our money, right?
openpublica.com