The “Flex-URA” delayed from the Loveland City Council meeting August 19 to September 2, is now upon us.
LovelandPolitics has learned some outside public interest groups and private attorneys have been looking over the proposal and whether it conforms with state law. The conclusion, it flies in the face of state statute and would not hold-up in state court. Read the specifics at LovelandPolitics.com
Left and Right Agree It is A Bad Idea
Conservative talk show host and member of Colorado’s Independence Institute, Amy Oliver, interviewed Councilman Kent Solt on her popular radio show on KFKA (1310 AM) which covers Northern Colorado and Denver. A number of people coming to this issue from outside Loveland are shocked the City of Loveland is even willing discuss abdicating its own role over TIF (Tax Increment Financing) and also declare green farmland as blight. Amy Oliver has indicated she intends on broadcasting a follow-up show on the issue once the city council makes its decision.
Another member of the media investigating the matter referred to it as a “clear power grab” while another, a Denver attorney, stated the council was putting themselves at risk for being accused of “abuse of discretion.” This is because the state law gives local officials the discretion to determine what is and isn’t urban blight in the community. If they use this discretion in a pernicious or arbitrary manner and pretend blight exists on land that is indistinguishable from most other properties in the surrounding area (but are not owned by their campaign contributor McWhinney Enterprises) — “this is clearly abuse of their discrection.”
The condition of the property and not who owns it should be the determining factor when declaring land blighted. Nonetheless, Loveland’s truly blighted and abandoned commercial and residential properties remain unfixed while the City Council prepares to declare even more open and desirable farm land as blighted. This will provide McWhinney’s Metro District the opportunity to create more public debt through bonds to pay for their “demolition” and infrastructure costs of building on the open farm land. Adjacent property owners of farmland and even those who own blighted properties must use their own money to develop the land.
Local Democratic Attorney, Mark Shaffer, has also voiced concern over the proposal and the longer-term impact in may have on the community. Shaffer, like others who work in downtown Loveland, are concerned over the neglect of businesses in downtown Loveland while the council seems willing to do almost anything to continue sprawl near I-25.
Will you be attending the meeting and what would you do if you were on Loveland’s City Council?
“…Loveland’s truly blighted and abandoned commercial and residential properties remain unfixed while the City Council prepares to declare even more open and desirable farm land as blighted.”
Yep, couldn’t have said it better. These McWhinney cronies are obviously bought & paid for and lack the prudence to even try to hide the fact. Scandalous!
In a democracy, the people ultimately get exactly the government they deserve, and sometimes they get it good and hard.