Greeley council to consider major residential, commercial project 

GREELEY — The Greeley City Council will be asked Tuesday night to approve eight metropolitan districts that will finance the infrastructure for a major housing and commercial development on mostly undeveloped land north of U.S. Highway 34 Business, also known as 10th Street.

The proposed project is the work of The Cache LLC, a company created by Ed Orr of Orr Land Co. It would include, initially, 332.2 acres of land with the potential to add 714.6 acres as a future annexation, or 1,046 acres total.

When completed after multiple years of development, the project would include 3,705 residential units — all but 500 of them single-family — 30,000 square feet of commercial property adjacent to 10th Street, and 10 million square feet of parks, recreational facilities and open space.

The property in question is bordered by 10th Street on the south, Weld County Road 62 on the north, 95th Avenue on the west and 83rd Avenue on the east.

As outlined in the proposal for the city council, the project would require an estimated $199.7 million to lay in infrastructure. Orr’s request for eight metro districts would permit phased bonding that would allow the project to be developed over time, with residents in each phase to repay the bonds attributable to their part of the development.

Orr said the maximum debt to be incurred would be $200 million and the maximum metro district mill levy to be applied to properties would be 70 mills.

As calculated by city staff, a $350,000 home in the Cache development would have a potential mill application of 147.06 when other governing bodies such as the school district apply their mill rates. That would result in taxes on such a house of $3,655 per year. In comparison, a home of similar value in the Promontory development would have 125.993 mills applied and pay $3,175 in annual property taxes.

The property is currently zoned PUD and Residential – Low Density; part of it had previously been considered for the Lake Bluff PUD, but that project did not move forward.

Orr is well-known in Greeley. His roots are in ranching, with the family operating ranches in Weld and Grand counties. His real estate company has specialized in ag land, but Orr has also developed the Poudre River Ranch project in west Greeley and other projects in and near the city.  

Another of his companies, Orr Energy LLC, tapped into the mineral rights on land that he owned in the Denver-Julesburg Basin. 

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