Triveni Square Metropolitan District responds to misinformation regarding Dillon redevelopment efforts
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE • TRIVENI SQUARE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT NO. 1-4
White Bear Ankele Tanaka & Waldron • 2154 East Commons Ave., Suite 2000 • Centennial, Colorado 80122 • (303) 858-1800 • www.trivenisquaremd.com
CONTACT: Trish Harris, Esq., Of Counsel, (303) 858-1800
DILLON, COLO (February 26, 2025) – Triveni Square Metropolitan District No. 1-4, a group of special taxing districts created to support redevelopment of Dillon’s town core area, is responding to some of the most egregious misinformation being conveyed to residents by some opponents of the public-private engagement related to that redevelopment.
The districts were approved by the Dillon Town Council in February 2023 to finance public infrastructure for Triveni Square, a project by developer JGJP Dillon, LLC, that aims to revitalize some 19 acres of residential and commercial land in Dillon’s town center.
Metropolitan districts like Triveni Square are regulated quasi-governmental entities formed to finance public infrastructure including roads, sewer systems and parks. Subject to various requirements intended to provide oversight by the town, the Triveni Square Metro Districts have authority to issue tax-exempt bonds and impose property taxes within its boundaries to repay debt incurred for public improvements.
“After extensive consideration, Dillon’s Town Council agreed that a metro district is the best path for funding the infrastructure necessary to successfully redevelop the town’s core area,” said the Triveni Square Metro Districts legal counsel and representative Trish Harris. “Unfortunately, however, the Dillon community has been subject to an extraordinary level of misinformation by a handful of people who hope to derail the project. We feel obligated to respond to help residents fully understand the process.”
The Triveni Square Metro Districts provided clarifications to some of the most common misinformation being communicated:
FALSE ALLEGATION: Dillon Town Council’s approval to create the Triveni Square Metro Districts was done without expert-level input, financial reviews or oversight necessary to protect the Town’s interests.
FACT: THIS IS NOT TRUE. In February 2023, the Dillon Town Council approved a “service plan” creating the Triveni Square Metro Districts after extensive independent negotiations, reviews and sign-off by highly experienced attorneys engaged by and representing only the Town of Dillon.
The service plan is basically a regulatory framework that outlines how the Triveni Square Metro Districts can raise infrastructure funding and operate, with the Town of Dillon retaining certain oversight authority.
All specific development plans still require approval from Dillon’s Town Council.
FALSE ALLEGATION: The Triveni Square Metro Districts are going to saddle the Town of Dillon with billions of dollars in debt from public bond sales and private debt placements.
FACT: THIS IS NOT TRUE. The amount that the combined Triveni Square Metro Districts may borrow for infrastructure funding related to the Dillon’s town core redevelopment is capped at $120 million. This maximum amount was established in the service plan approved by Dillon’s Town Council with guidance from the town’s independent expert law firm. This debt limit can’t be increased or exceeded without express approval from the Town Council to change the service plan.
Realistically, however, it is quite unlikely that the Triveni Square Metro Districts will seek anywhere near this amount of debt financing to pay for infrastructure improvements related to the Town core redevelopment.
Ultimately, lenders will only loan any metro district what is appropriate and that the district can reasonably repay, depending on property values, projected tax revenues, interest rates and other factors.
And even then, the service plan requires that an independent financial expert working for the Town of Dillon confirm that the interest rate in relation to any privately placed debt does not exceed reasonable current rates, and that the debt structure is realistic given the metro districts’ financial circumstances.
FALSE ALLEGATION: Money to pay for the town core redevelopment is being taken from Dillon’s schools, fire fighters, emergency and other services.
FACT: THIS IS NOT TRUE. The tax revenues that opponents claim are being “given away” from the town’s schools and services don’t yet exist, and won’t until created by Dillon’s redevelopment.
What is happening is a two-part revenue sharing arrangement:
First, the Town of Dillon has agreed to share the new, increased sales, lodging and short-term excise tax revenues that will be generated by the Triveni Square redevelopment. This common revenue-sharing arrangement will expire once the metro district’s infrastructure bonds are repaid, at which point 100 percent of the tax revenues that had not existed before the redevelopment will go to Dillon.
Second, the Dillon Urban Renewal Authority (DURA) has agreed to share the tax revenue generated through the increase in assessed value created by the redevelopment with the Triveni Square Metropolitan District until 2037. After that, all tax increment revenue will go back to the various other taxing entities including the town, county and school district.
FALSE ALLEGATION: Money being paid to the Triveni Square Metro Districts and the developer is a huge property tax burden of an additional 100 mils.
FACT: THIS IS NOT TRUE. The public infrastructure bonds to be sold in 2025 by the metro district are structured to be paid from a debt service mill levy of 35 mills. The mill level to pay an estimated $150,000 operational and maintenance expenses per year is expected to be 5.29 mills at full build-out of the town core redevelopment.
The service plan caps mill levies at 50 mills for debt and 50 mills for operations and maintenance, subject to adjustment as provided in the service plan to allow for revenue neutrality in the event that Colorado changes how it calculates property assessments.
The Triveni Square Metro Districts have no need for and no intention to levy 100 mills.
For more information about Triveni Square Metropolitan Districts 1-4, please visit www.trivenisquaremd.com.