April 23, 2010

To all Castle Pines North citizens:

Even as the City of Castle Pines North continues its efforts to move expediently for cooperative integration of services with the Castle Pines North Metro District, the City once again finds itself forced to respond to continued misrepresentations by the Metro District. 

On Feb. 5, the City filed a petition in Douglas County District Court seeking dissolution of the District. This move came after the Metro District spurned repeated efforts over two years by the City to achieve a cooperative integration that would increase service efficiency and reduce costs for City taxpayers and businesses. In response, the Metro District petitioned the Court for a six-month continuance. On April 15, the City filed an objection to that request, asking the Court to reduce the continuance to three months under certain conditions:

• The City designate two members of City Council and that the District designate two members of the Board of Directors of the District to function as the parties’ respective designated representatives, who shall be required to meet to discuss the dissolution proceeding and work toward completing the intergovernmental agreement required by state law, and that each party notify the Court in writing, within ten days following the date on which the Court enters its Order Granting Continuance (the “Continuance Order”), of such designations; and
  
  
• The Court order that the parties’ designated representatives meet, at a minimum, on a semi-monthly (two times per month) basis following the entry of the Continuance Order, with the dates and times of such mandatory meetings to be agreed upon by the parties; and
  
  
• The District be required to file monthly status reports with the Court, with the first status report to be due thirty days following the Court’s entry of the Continuance Order; and
  
  
• That each status report be required to contain: (a) detailed information regarding the District’s progress in finalizing its plan for dissolution, and (b) a timetable listing steps that the District intends on completing during the next ensuing thirty day reporting period.

To date, the Court has not issued a ruling.

Following the joint City and Metro District meeting of Mar 16, both parties agreed to have further dialogue regarding cooperative integration efforts. It is unfortunate that Metro District Board Members have not been available to continue the dialogue with the City on this critically important issue.

Concerns have been raised regarding the Metro District’s financial arrangements in relation to their water strategy, which the City will address in the immediate future.  

City Council is committed to putting a permanent financing solution in place for renewable water. This community is not well served, nor are our property values protected, when an issue of such magnitude is denigrated into a war of words. This is a serious and complex issue that the City will continue to address in a responsible and factual manner.

Incorporated Feb. 12, 2008, Castle Pines North is a city of about 10,000 located 20 miles south of Denver in Douglas County. For more information about news and events in Castle Pines North, please visit the city’s Web site. If you have any questions or comments, please call the city offices at 303.705.0200, or fill out an online comment form.