The Golden Urban Renewal Authority (GURA) meets at 6:30 this evening in City Council Chambers. Urban renewal authorities can wield special financial tools and incentives to put a blighted area on the road to economic prosperity, but there is a time limit on how long an area can be given those advantages. By state statute, an URA can only exist for 25 years. Golden’s first Urban Renewal area was the historic downtown. While that area was under active “renewal,” GURA made tax increment financing deals with developers and gave grants to businesses to build web sites, make energy efficiency improvements, and improve their facades. The downtown project was spectacularly successful, and GURA was left with a substantial balance at the end of the 25 years. They were expected to give this balance to their successor organization, the Downtown Development Authority, but decided instead to retain the money (about $2 million) to be used for one last downtown project. The agreement was that if they didn’t use the money within a certain amount of time, it would go to the Downtown Development Authority (DDA), so they could use it on projects of their choosing. Time is about up, but GURA doesn’t want to give up their control of that money–they’re still hoping to do one last downtown GURA project. Tonight they will discuss how to persuade the DDA to allow them to keep control for a while longer.
When the downtown project expired, the City set up new urban renewal authority areas on 8th Street, on West Colfax, and in the Central Neighborhoods near the former bowling alley/current Natural Grocers. The news from 8th Street is that the Planning Department has received building permits for the hotel and the first apartment building to go on the old Briarwood property on the west end of the street. They are also working on a traffic redesign for 8th Street hoping to improve traffic patterns before the additional traffic from the new buildings arrives. In the Central Neighborhoods, the Jefferson County Housing Authority is waiting to hear whether they get federal funding for their proposed project at 24th and Jackson. They have scaled back the plans for that project so that they can provide the required parking on-site, rather than trying to use the High School’s parking lot. For details about any of this information, read the meeting packet….
More Monday Events:
9:30AM – MOMS Club of Golden at Faith Lutheran
11:15AM – Let’s Dance at the Golden Library
6PM – Golden Safety Academy at the Golden Fire Department (covering what students and parents both need to know to keep kids safe)
6:30PM – Golden Concert Choir Membership Night at First United Methodist (if you like to sing, consider joining this group–tonight’s the night!)
6:30-9:30PM – GURA Board Meeting at the Planning Office
Open Mic Nights:
5:45-7:30PM – Open Mic at the Golden Library
6:30 PM – Open Mic at Dirty Dogs Roadhouse
Tuesday Preview:
3PM – Under the M Farm Stand
5:30PM – Golden High School PTA Meeting
6PM – Big Wall Climbing Clinic at Bent Gate
6:30PM – French Conversation at the Golden Library
6:30PM – Economic Development Commission Meeting at City Hall
