A process that could eventually result in the creation of a downtown development authority in Boulder is proceeding apace through planning (by city staff) and early vetting (by Boulder officials) stages, but some skepticism over a DDA’s viability remains among Boulder City Council members.
The concept of a DDA, an organization that would be tasked with guiding business-vitality and infrastructure-investment efforts around the Pearl Street Mall and University Hill for decades to come, was first presented in March to Boulder leaders, who held a late May study session to solicit additional information on the plan from staffers.
While most of the elected participants in that session expressed some optimism about a DDA’s potential to breathe new life into a downtown that’s yet to be fully revived from the economic turmoil of the COVID-19 era, a few worried that they still don’t have all the information they need to decide whether risks of the plan could outweigh the rewards.
Boulder City Council is expected to decide in August whether to put a framework for the authority on November’s ballot for approval by an estimated 2,500 electors who own or lease commercial and residential properties inside district boundaries.
The mission of the DDA would be to spur “reinvestment and reinvigoration of the core downtown, including University Hill, for the next 30-plus years,” Boulder assistant city manager Mark Woulf said during the May 28 study session.
“Similar to other cities, post-pandemic recovery of Boulder’s core districts has been sluggish,” according to a May memo to City Council. “Office vacancies remain high, many small businesses struggle with increasing costs and stagnant sales, and lingering perceptions of a lack of safety limits visitation. A 2025 analysis found that sales and property tax revenues had flatlined since 2019. Adjusting for inflation, values and tax revenues were eroded by more than 20%.”
While the framework for its organizational and financial structures has been sketched by city staff and consultants with Progressive Urban Management Associates, “there are still many details that need to be worked out” before putting the matter before voters, Woulf said.
Under the DDA framework proposed by Boulder staffers, the authority would have an initial 30-year lifespan and options for two 20-year extensions.
While the proposed DDA would eventually stand on its own and be governed by an independent board of directors, city staff and consultants would help get the new organization on its feet during the first couple of years, Boulder officials were told by staff in March.
A host of other Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado communities — Longmont, Loveland and Fort Collins, for example — already have DDAs, which tend to differ from general improvement districts (several Boulder commercial areas have used GIDs over the past 50 years) because they are “authorized to capture and reinvest incremental growth in property and sales tax revenue through TIF,” or tax-increment financing, a March memo from staff to City Council said. TIF revenues are generated by new growth and development that occurs within a DDA district.
As currently envisioned, additional DDA funding would come from a new mill levy, sales-tax increments and parking revenue.
“Boulder’s downtown core is largely built out. That inherently restricts TIF generation, so it grows gradually and really doesn’t generate meaningful revenue on day one or even in the first few years,” Boulder economic development strategy manager Reegan Brown said during the May study session. “That’s precisely why the mill levy and parking assets are essential for near-term capacity and investments.”
Financial models presented by the city conservatively project that TIF revenue could total $143 million over 30 years.
Boulder staffers have recommended to elected officials that a DDA ballot measure include a 3.674 mill-levy rate, which would generate about $1.8 million a year in new revenue.
Combined, and not including parking revenue, the TIF and mill-levy mechanisms are expected to generate between about $18.4 million and $26.4 million between 2027 and 2032. Parking revenue over that period is projected at about $44 million.
Mayor Aaron Brockett said the proposed DDA “has potential to be a catalytic tool for the downtown.”
Councilmember Nicole Speer wasn’t so sure. “I’m skeptical; I just feel like I don’t really have a lot of information,” she said. “We can certainly bring it forward to the next step, but I’m not quite sure this is going to work out. I would like some more information showing me that it will.”
Speer said she wants to see data that demonstrates “accountability” from the DDA for the creation of communitywide benefits and analysis that shows that the city won’t overly prioritize its resource allocation toward one part of town at the expense of others.
Ryan Schuchard expressed similar sentiment, noting that the DDA-formation process “is a whole new animal for us.” He added: “I’m optimistic that this will become something, but I’m skeptical and this is a lot of things to take on.”
Boulder leaders would be well served to have more clarity “on the offsets from the general fund so that we can explain that” to the public, Schuchard said. For example: If control of certain revenue-generating mechanisms and assets — downtown parking lots, perhaps — is shifted from the city to the DDA, what impact would that have on Boulder’s ability to fund services throughout city limits?
A city staff memo acknowledges that concern and briefly explores a couple of ways that the DDA could “offset these near-term fiscal impacts,” while noting that “neither is fully quantifiable at this stage.”
First, the DDA could take on certain service obligations that are currently shouldered by the city and paid for out of the general fund, in which case the “city’s effective liability for those expenditures is reduced,” the memo said.
The second potential offset relies on the a-rising-tide-lifts-all-boats principle. In the long term, “successful DDA investment should generate economic activity above and beyond what current city projections reflect. New development, commercial revitalization, increased district activity, and higher property values produce additional sales and property tax growth,” a portion of which would flow into city coffers.
Councilmember Matt Benjamin said, “I like where this is headed. We’ve still got another bite at the apple” in advance of any votes to gather information and shape messaging to help residents “understand the force multiplier” that the proposed DDA financial structure and economic-development mission could create for broad community benefits.
While optimistic, Benjamin raised some concerns that he said have been circulating among business operators on University Hill about the potential for tax revenues raised in that neighborhood to be spent disproportionately on improvements around Pearl Street.
“We’ve taken great strides to boost The Hill with deliberate investment — not just (the city) but (the University of Colorado) as well, with the Moxy Hotel and the Limelight Hotel. …There’s already been some trust issues with (business owners on) The Hill” who worry that the neighborhood could play second fiddle to other parts of the DDA district.
If a DDA ultimately is sent to voters and approved, Boulder staff and officials would spend the time between November and next spring crafting the legal and organizational structure of the authority — identifying board candidates, inking an intergovernmental agreement with the city, transferring GID- and city-controlled assets and beginning to collect tax revenue — and over the next year or two the focus would shift to long-term implementation efforts such as hiring a DDA executive director and planning capital projects, city documents show.
