Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority Meeting - November 13, 2025
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Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority Meeting - November 13, 2025
On November 13, 2025, the Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority (LURA) convened its final regular meeting of the year to review and approve budget amendments for 2025 and the tentative budget for 2026, while transitioning core responsibilities to the newly operational Downtown Development Authority (DDA). Executive Director Keating presented a high-level overview of the financial status, noting the cessation of sales tax collection in October 2024 and the reliance on fund balances for 2026 operations. The board unanimously approved both budget resolutions following a closing of the public hearing due to an absence of public testimony.
Consent Calendar
- No items were listed under the Consent Calendar; routine administrative actions were handled as discussion items or separate votes.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No Public Attendance: The Executive Director noted there were no members of the public present at the meeting, nor were there any remote attendees. Consequently, the public hearing for both the 2025 amended budget and the 2026 budget was opened and immediately closed with no testimony recorded.
Discussion Items
- 2025 Amended Revenue Budget: Executive Director Keating explained that the amendment accounts for $900,000 in additional property tax revenue collected in arrears, which was not reflected in the previous budget. This funding supports downtown development ($5.4 million total allocation for the year), streetscape maintenance, and operational costs under the Interlocal Agreement (IGA) with the DDA. The discussion highlighted the current focus on wind-down activities, core service maintenance, and asset disposal.
- 2026 Revenue Budget: Keating noted that no new revenue is projected for 2026 as collection has ceased. The budget relies entirely on carried-over fund balances to support the final operational phase, including professional services for easement transfers, selling two LURA-owned properties, and potential legal costs if an executed Economic Development Agreement (EDA) falls through. The budget includes a minimal operational line item of approximately $6,000.
- Board Inquiry on Budget Structure: A commissioner questioned why remaining items could not be consolidated into the 2025 budget rather than creating a 2026 iteration. Keating clarified that state statute requires an annual budget while the authority remains active. Furthermore, funding remains in place to address uncertainties, such as the potential failure of a property sale under contract or work required for three easements.
- Funding Transfer Protocol: A commissioner asked if unspent funds or funding for the potentially unexecuted EDA would transfer to the DDA. Keating confirmed that such funds could be directed to the DDA without amending the IGA, simply by providing board direction.
- Strategic Transition: The board discussed the transition of leadership to the DDA, with the Director thanking the board for their service as LURA winds down its 25-year history. A collective sentiment expressed was a hope that no budget resolution would be required for fiscal year 2027, signifying a desire to complete the dissolution process soon.
Key Outcomes
- Approval of 2025 Amended Budget: Resolution 2025-08, amending the 2025 budget to appropriate fiscal adjustments including additional property tax revenue, was approved by unanimous vote.
- Adoption of 2026 Budget: Resolution 2025-09, adopting the 2026 budget and making appropriations based on remaining fund balances, was approved by unanimous vote.
- Next Steps: The authority will continue to manage the disposal of assets, including the transfer or sale of two properties and easement work, while transitioning full downtown leadership to the DDA. No meeting was scheduled for 2027.
Meeting Transcript
Well, this is where Debbie is after. So we're ready to begin here. Um welcome to the November 13th, 2025 meeting of the Lafayette Group and Renewal Authority. Um Executive Director Keating, could we have a roll call, please? Commissioner Arrington here. Commissioner Martin here, Commissioner Redondo, Commissioner Rogers, Commissioner Williams, Vice Chair Cutler. Here, Chair Muller. Here no open public input for the general meeting, but seeing is that no members of the public are here, we'll close and move on to item three, which is the approval of the October 21st, 2025 meeting minutes. Are there any changes or additions? If not, could we get a motion to approve the minutes as written? Was that again? October 5th, 4th, 21st. July first, 21st. I'll make a motion to approve the October 21st minutes as written. I'll second. All those in favor, please say aye. Okay. Um for the presentation of the 2025 amended Lafayette Urban Renewal Budget in the proposed 2026 Law Feet Urban Renewal Budget Notice in the Denver Post Monday, November 3rd. Um we'll have two resolutions and uh we'll start with the executive summary. Great. Um thanks, Kevin, for that introduction. So for the agenda, I'm gonna go through the budget process, the budget overview, and this will be for both the amended budget and the 2026 budget, and then open up to any questions, and then we'll move into the public hearing portion. As Kevin um mentioned, this was noticed in the daily or the Denver Post. And so we'll have a public hearing first for the 2025 budget where we'll open it up for public input, uh close it, and you all will have a discussion and then consider the resolution, and then the same format for the 2026 budget. So I'll have prompts for each of those to help us move it through. So for the process, as you are all aware, we uh first introduced the uh two uh budgets on the October 2025 October 21st meeting. Um I went to council on October 28th um for feedback and got positive feedback, and then tonight you're considering um both of those resolutions through a public hearing. So for the uh 2025 amended revenue budget, I'm gonna give just a high-level overview of both these since we uh already introduced this the last meeting. So um we are amending our budget for the additional revenue and expenditures, and so um we collected we stopped collecting sales tax in October 2024, but we collected an additional 900,000 in property tax that was not reflected previously because property taxes collected in arrears, and so this accurately accurately reflects the additional property tax that we've collected and also the interest for the 2025 expenses. Um this just um shows a summary of how our funding is has been allocated for this year, and so that additional 900,000 is in that 5.4 million for downtown development, and you can see that there's still um work that has been done in streetscape marking, operational, professional services, repairs, and maintenance, and this is um due in part to our IGA with the DDA where we said that we would continue core services for this year while they get up and running. Um this you'll see in a moment when I talk about 2026 that that all goes down significantly. And so our key initiatives for this year has been to wind down, provide funding to the DDA. Um, we have two cooperative agreements with the city, one for the South Boulder Road Revitalization Project, one for the 700 and 800 block of South Public Road. We also approved a resolution in uh September to transfer funding for the purchase of 108 North Public Road, which is the parking lot previously owned by Chase Bank. Um and we've also just uh continued core services with marketing, the parking lot leases, and working towards disposing of our assets. So for 2026 revenue budget, similarly, um uh we we stopped collecting revenue, right? And so uh no new revenue is projected for 2026, and the budget is all based on fund balance that's carried over from 2025, and then our expenses truly do reflect that we hope to be in our final operational phase next year, and so we have funding related to disposing of our assets in downtown development um as well as um in professional services, um, and then some minor operational. So the operational administration is really uh geared towards just the Lura window. We also have funding in downtown development for an economic development agreement that we approved that funding has not been executed, and that we're still trying to figure out that project's moving forward or not, and then the disposal of Laura Assets, we have funding in here related to what might need to be done when we transfer easements or also selling our two properties. So as a reminder, uh we'll be moving into the public hearing portion of this. Um you'll be approving two resolutions. But before we open it, turn it over uh to the public hearing. I want to open it up for any questions about either budget. Okay, so we're up to the board. I know it's go ahead. I I'm looking at this again, I was wondering why couldn't we move all of this remaining items from 26 over in 25 to kind of avoid having another 26 budget? Or is this just a pro like a precautionary budget? We have to per state statute, we have to do a budget um each year, and since we are not dissolving next year, and we still have some remaining items that we need to take care of, particularly selling the two parcels. Um while we're under contract for one of them, that could fall through. And um, we also have three easements, and so if there's any work that needs to be done with that, and so this is um you can see that with like legal services and operating supplies, it's really low, it's like six thousand dollars total, but um, I have funding in here just to make sure that we can wrap everything up accordingly.
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