Berthoud delays decision on massive Turion development

BERTHOUD — Developers of the massive, Bill Gates-owned Turion development just east of Interstate 25 in Berthoud and Mead will have to wait a few more weeks to have host communities sign off on metropolitan district service plans.

The Berthoud Town Board heard from Turion representatives Tuesday night in a meeting fraught with connectivity problems that inhibited in-person members of the town board from clearly communicating with remote staff and legal representatives. As a result, the complicated metro district amendment proposal before the board was delayed until Feb. 8 when the board will continue the public hearing and pose additional questions of their own.

Turion has been in the works for a couple of decades, and developers are now ready to get underway on the 2,100-acre project that will be the largest master-planned community in Berthoud and Mead. About 1,600 acres of the development are in Berthoud and the remainder in Mead. Both communities need to sign off on the metropolitan district service plans. Last week, Mead delayed a decision until Berthoud had a chance to consider the plans; now with Berthoud also delaying, it will take a bit longer to get underway.

Turion developers would like to begin onsite dirt work this year, beginning in the northwest corner of the site near I-25 and Weld County Road 44. The project includes both residential and commercial spaces and will be built out over 30 years in 34 phases of construction, the developers said.

Public improvement costs will total $521 million in today’s dollars or an estimated $650.8 million with inflation over the course of the development. As a result, mill levies to support the multiple metro districts were set high. The commercial levy for infrastructure is proposed at 45 mills, and the residential mill levy is proposed at 55.664. On top of that, both residential and commercial property owners in the Berthoud part of the development will pay 18 mills for operating and maintenance, and Mead property owners will pay 15 mills.

Concerned about signing off on the metro district service plans given intense debate in Colorado about effects on future property owners, the town board posed questions about the mill levies and their impacts. Berthoud residents living outside of metro districts currently pay about 95 mills in property taxes, which includes the rates for schools, county and special districts. The Turion metro district tax rates would be layered on top of that.

With board members not ready to agree to the metro district plans and public contributions limited by technical issues, the board voted unanimously to continue its public hearing on Feb. 8.

If the district plans are approved and the development proceeds as projected, 4,000 homes and 5.3 million square feet of commercial space, mostly along the interstate, will rise from the ground between now and 2051.

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