Berthoud Town Board rejects Turion development 

BERTHOUD — In a high stakes game of who will eventually control development at its primary exit off Interstate 25, the Berthoud Town Board last week said it wasn’t willing to go along with a developer’s plan for metro districts at the interchange. It voted 4-3 to deny the plans.

Two weeks ago, the Berthoud board delayed a decision on amendments to the service plan and intergovernmental agreement for the massive Bill Gates-owned Turion development that would be built on the southeast corner of the I-25 and Colorado Highway 56 interchange. The developer, Front Range Investment Holdings LLC, would combine 1,600 acres of land that sits in the town of Berthoud with 500 acres in Mead to create a master-planned, metro-district financed commercial and residential development. Mead has already approved the service plan and intergovernmental agreement.

Last week, the Berthoud board continued the public hearing — it heard only from one farmer concerned about a ditch that runs through the property — and posed a number of questions and concerns.

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Concerns centered in three areas:

• Will the developer be amenable to contract language that would accelerate placement of new residents of the metro districts onto the governing boards of those districts.
• Will the developer consider a lower mill levy than the maximum permitted by state law.
• And is the community willing to accept more metro districts at all.

As the vote indicated, board members were of mixed opinions.

Jeff Hindman, on the losing side, reviewed the history of that interchange and how Berthoud spent 25 years fighting with Johnstown to control development there. He said while he has concerns, he’s “comfortable with the current [development] standards” that the town has put in place. He wanted to see provisions in the agreement to assure that residents other than the developer have representation on metro district boards soon after their creation, and the town attorney drafted language that Hindman was willing to add to the motion to approve the agreements.

Mayor Will Karspeck said he generally opposes metro districts because of their impacts on future property owners and was not likely to vote in favor. 

Maureen Dower, mayor pro tem, was most concerned about the mill rate that would be imposed on properties in the metro districts. The developer proposed the maximum rate of 55.664 for residential properties and 45 mills for commercial properties, plus 18 mills for operating and maintenance. 

Turion “may have more voters than old town Berthoud [someday] and if Berthoud ever needs to increase its property tax levy it could be voted down” if residents feel overtaxed, she argued.

She acknowledged that the tax rate in the development needed to be balanced against potential future sales taxes that the town will collect from commercial developments there. 

She said she would like to limit the maximum residential mill levy rate payable to the metro districts to 40 mills and also limit the bond interest rate.

The developer’s representative said the developer had run models at various mill rates and “I don’t think we can do this at 40 mills.”

Hindman argued that “this is not a question about whether this intersection is going to develop. In three years, they’ll de-annex [from Berthoud] and go to Johnstown. If you want to control the development there, then you need to approve this.” He moved to approve with his provision about metro district board participation, and Mike Grace seconded.

Dower asked if there was room to compromise on the mill rate. She threw out a number of 50 mills maximum and proposed to amend the motion. That died for lack of a second.

And the overall motion failed to gain a majority of the board with a 4-3 vote against Hindman’s motion.

Representatives from the town of Mead and Front Range Investment Holdings LLC have not responded to requests for comment.