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| Loveland Officials Pitch Centerra (McWhinney) As Top Priority for Funding of Stimulus In Region State of Colorado asks cities for a list of "shovel ready" transportation projects LovelandPolitics Exclusive Story |
Loveland - January 24, 2009
The City of Loveland has named "shovel ready" a transportation project for the State of Colorado in
hopes of receiving several million dollars of President Obama's nationwide stimulus package to address
national transportation infrastructure needs. Congress is currently deliberating over the "bail-out" package
that will also include funds to be distributed for local transportation projects around the country. Some
Loveland officials appear to be working on behalf of McWhinney Enterprises to divert these funds
exclusively into a Centerra transportation project that was supposed to be funded by the Centerra Metro
District.
The project Loveland has identified as "shovel ready" is the intersection at Crossroads Blvd and I-25 on
the North end of Centerra via the installation of a Roundabout. Anyone familiar with the massive tax
subsidy for McWhinney's metro district will recognize the Crossroads Roundabout as one McWhinney
agreed to fund as part of their " regional improvements" in exchange for receiving an estimated $600
million in future Loveland sales and property taxes for 25 years.
According to an unnamed source inside the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), the
interchange at Crossroads and I-25 does not qualify to be on the "shovel ready" list for federal funding.
This is because the project is already funded thus any new moneys coming into Loveland will be
subsidizing the McWhinney's and their existing obligations instead of providing new transportation dollars
for the community to fund genuine transportation needs. Loveland first tried, through the proposed
Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), to get regional local governments to propose a new 1% sales
tax to fund those and other desired highway expansions. Today Loveland is seeking new federal
"stimulus" funds to also further subsidize McWhinney's metro district instead of pursuing federal dollars for
unfunded or partially funded Loveland transportation projects that will not be built without the federal
dollars.
In a meeting held with council members from ten Northern Colorado cities along with a technical advisory
committee (TAC) consisting mostly of staff from the various cities and city managers gathered to clarify
the state's intention of organizing a list of "shovel ready" projects. According to CDOT the organization
responsible for organizing the meeting, CDOT carefully explained to everyone present that transportation
projects with funding already identified are not eligible for the federal money but instead only those
projects with no funding or partial funding. The term "shovel ready" refers to projects already on the State
Implementation Plan (SIP) which is the one criteria the Crossroads project does meet. CDOT officials
are concerned that Loveland has ignored the rules and submitted for funding a project that already has a
funding mechanism in place. This could result in Loveland not receiving any of the transportation dollars
made available through the stimulus package for communities across the country.
Did Loveland's City Manager Provide the State False Information?
According to one source, CDOT initially responded to inquiries about Crossroads and the Roundabouts
by providing the following;
"In the case of the Crossroads Roundabouts, the dedicated funding is coming through Windsor,
Loveland and the URA. As we heard at the meeting, the agreement for funding is split between
the three, with an original cost estimate of $3.6M. The estimate is now over $6M, and the $3M
on the stimulus list is a placeholder to "make whole" the project. It is not to replace any of the
funding already identified."
The information CDOT indicated was presented in the regional meeting is not entirely accurate. Loveland
failed to disclose the details of the Centerra Metro District funding and the fact that any additional federal
dollars are going to supplant money already planned for that interchange. In other words, the statement
above that none of the money is going to replace any funding already identified is simply not true. The
question now appears to be who within the City of Loveland is responsible for misleading CDOT.
Subsequent of the multi-city meeting, LovelandPolitics has learned that the City of Loveland lobbied
CDOT again directly to include Crossroads on the "shovel ready" list for federal funding and again failed
to disclose that McWhinney already agreed to provide $25 million for the Crossroads intersection with
I-25 by 2024 as part of the MFA (Master Financing Agreement) with the City of Loveland.
In December of 2006, the Loveland City Council voted as suggested by the city manager to amend the
McWhinney's controversial agreement with the city. The amendment removed any obligations by the
Centerra Metro District to complete or even fund the "regional improvements" as promised provided other
government funding could be identified. Since 2006, McWhinney has been lobbying to divert any
potentially new transportation dollars for Loveland into their projects that are supposed to be funded
through the Centerra Metro District.
In late November last year, Loveland Mayor Gene Pielin circulated a letter to colleagues seeking to
secure funds from Governor Ritter's administration to widen I-25; ignoring the CDOT EIS process which
was underway. This renegade tactic was interpreted by CDOT as an attempt to subvert their established
process for prioritizing funding. In the end, the effort failed to gain any support from regional officials but
instead further alienated Loveland from decision makers in state government for new transportation
projects.
The Cost of Incompetence and Special Interests
Ft. Collins and Greeley officials who voted not to join the RTA 1% regional sales tax initiative to improve
regional transportation did so, in part, due to Loveland's unabashed attempts to steer the funds to
McWhinney. Loveland City Manager Don Williams attempted to put McWhinney priorities ahead of city
needs by proposing Loveland's share in the regional sales tax would go to relieve McWhinney of their
obligations in the MFA (Master Financing Agreement) instead of using the new funding to improve roads
or intersections outside Centerra.
Council members in Ft. Collins and Greeley first tried to seek a compromise with Loveland but finally
pulled-out of the RTA given Williams' intransigent position on using the money to replace funds already
promised by McWhinneys. Finally, the RTA was not able to move forward and the effort was
abandoned by the other two cities leaving Loveland as the only large city "holding the bag."
Now, the State of Colorado is seeking input from the cities on where to spend new stimulus transportation
dollars but Williams is again singing the same tune. Again the appearance that Loveland is speaking like a
lobbyist for McWhinney instead of an independent municipality is putting the funding in jeopardy and the
credibility of the city government at risk.
The McWhinneys have sought permission from the city council to use the tax money collected by the
Centerra Metro District for projects that are not really public infrastructure but instead improve
McWhinney's bottom line by subsidizing future projects directly. In 2006, facing reelection, the council
voted against allowing the McWhinneys to use the Metro District dollars for a trolley car for shoppers at
the proposed Grand Station. The council did allow the McWhinneys through their metro district to fund
$80 million of Metro District funds to build a private parking garage to be used in the proposed Grand
Station.
Bait and Switch
McWhinney Enterprises promised the City of Loveland a myriad of regional transportation improvements
(see list on upper right corner of this page) in exchange for being given the authority to divert sales and
property taxes in East Loveland for 25 years into a special metro district controlled by McWhinney.
Now the switch, the only improvements funded so far are those that directly impact commercial properties
the McWhinneys were trying to lease or sell at the time. In the meantime, the McWhinneys have been
working feverishly to divert new transportation dollars into their projects thus leaving more funds for
"improvements" that really appear to be thinly disguised subsidies of the project.
The result has been the inability of Loveland to effectively collaborate with surrounding cities or the State
of Colorado to fund badly needed improvements to the regional transportation infrastructure. Until
Loveland has a city council and city manager willing to hold McWhinney's feet to the fire by insisting they
fund the projects as agreed to in the original MFA, Loveland's ability to partner with other cities or the
state in obtaining new transportation dollars will be doubtful.
The City of Loveland has named "shovel ready" a transportation project for the State of Colorado in
hopes of receiving several million dollars of President Obama's nationwide stimulus package to address
national transportation infrastructure needs. Congress is currently deliberating over the "bail-out" package
that will also include funds to be distributed for local transportation projects around the country. Some
Loveland officials appear to be working on behalf of McWhinney Enterprises to divert these funds
exclusively into a Centerra transportation project that was supposed to be funded by the Centerra Metro
District.
The project Loveland has identified as "shovel ready" is the intersection at Crossroads Blvd and I-25 on
the North end of Centerra via the installation of a Roundabout. Anyone familiar with the massive tax
subsidy for McWhinney's metro district will recognize the Crossroads Roundabout as one McWhinney
agreed to fund as part of their " regional improvements" in exchange for receiving an estimated $600
million in future Loveland sales and property taxes for 25 years.
According to an unnamed source inside the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), the
interchange at Crossroads and I-25 does not qualify to be on the "shovel ready" list for federal funding.
This is because the project is already funded thus any new moneys coming into Loveland will be
subsidizing the McWhinney's and their existing obligations instead of providing new transportation dollars
for the community to fund genuine transportation needs. Loveland first tried, through the proposed
Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), to get regional local governments to propose a new 1% sales
tax to fund those and other desired highway expansions. Today Loveland is seeking new federal
"stimulus" funds to also further subsidize McWhinney's metro district instead of pursuing federal dollars for
unfunded or partially funded Loveland transportation projects that will not be built without the federal
dollars.
In a meeting held with council members from ten Northern Colorado cities along with a technical advisory
committee (TAC) consisting mostly of staff from the various cities and city managers gathered to clarify
the state's intention of organizing a list of "shovel ready" projects. According to CDOT the organization
responsible for organizing the meeting, CDOT carefully explained to everyone present that transportation
projects with funding already identified are not eligible for the federal money but instead only those
projects with no funding or partial funding. The term "shovel ready" refers to projects already on the State
Implementation Plan (SIP) which is the one criteria the Crossroads project does meet. CDOT officials
are concerned that Loveland has ignored the rules and submitted for funding a project that already has a
funding mechanism in place. This could result in Loveland not receiving any of the transportation dollars
made available through the stimulus package for communities across the country.
Did Loveland's City Manager Provide the State False Information?
According to one source, CDOT initially responded to inquiries about Crossroads and the Roundabouts
by providing the following;
"In the case of the Crossroads Roundabouts, the dedicated funding is coming through Windsor,
Loveland and the URA. As we heard at the meeting, the agreement for funding is split between
the three, with an original cost estimate of $3.6M. The estimate is now over $6M, and the $3M
on the stimulus list is a placeholder to "make whole" the project. It is not to replace any of the
funding already identified."
The information CDOT indicated was presented in the regional meeting is not entirely accurate. Loveland
failed to disclose the details of the Centerra Metro District funding and the fact that any additional federal
dollars are going to supplant money already planned for that interchange. In other words, the statement
above that none of the money is going to replace any funding already identified is simply not true. The
question now appears to be who within the City of Loveland is responsible for misleading CDOT.
Subsequent of the multi-city meeting, LovelandPolitics has learned that the City of Loveland lobbied
CDOT again directly to include Crossroads on the "shovel ready" list for federal funding and again failed
to disclose that McWhinney already agreed to provide $25 million for the Crossroads intersection with
I-25 by 2024 as part of the MFA (Master Financing Agreement) with the City of Loveland.
In December of 2006, the Loveland City Council voted as suggested by the city manager to amend the
McWhinney's controversial agreement with the city. The amendment removed any obligations by the
Centerra Metro District to complete or even fund the "regional improvements" as promised provided other
government funding could be identified. Since 2006, McWhinney has been lobbying to divert any
potentially new transportation dollars for Loveland into their projects that are supposed to be funded
through the Centerra Metro District.
In late November last year, Loveland Mayor Gene Pielin circulated a letter to colleagues seeking to
secure funds from Governor Ritter's administration to widen I-25; ignoring the CDOT EIS process which
was underway. This renegade tactic was interpreted by CDOT as an attempt to subvert their established
process for prioritizing funding. In the end, the effort failed to gain any support from regional officials but
instead further alienated Loveland from decision makers in state government for new transportation
projects.
The Cost of Incompetence and Special Interests
Ft. Collins and Greeley officials who voted not to join the RTA 1% regional sales tax initiative to improve
regional transportation did so, in part, due to Loveland's unabashed attempts to steer the funds to
McWhinney. Loveland City Manager Don Williams attempted to put McWhinney priorities ahead of city
needs by proposing Loveland's share in the regional sales tax would go to relieve McWhinney of their
obligations in the MFA (Master Financing Agreement) instead of using the new funding to improve roads
or intersections outside Centerra.
Council members in Ft. Collins and Greeley first tried to seek a compromise with Loveland but finally
pulled-out of the RTA given Williams' intransigent position on using the money to replace funds already
promised by McWhinneys. Finally, the RTA was not able to move forward and the effort was
abandoned by the other two cities leaving Loveland as the only large city "holding the bag."
Now, the State of Colorado is seeking input from the cities on where to spend new stimulus transportation
dollars but Williams is again singing the same tune. Again the appearance that Loveland is speaking like a
lobbyist for McWhinney instead of an independent municipality is putting the funding in jeopardy and the
credibility of the city government at risk.
The McWhinneys have sought permission from the city council to use the tax money collected by the
Centerra Metro District for projects that are not really public infrastructure but instead improve
McWhinney's bottom line by subsidizing future projects directly. In 2006, facing reelection, the council
voted against allowing the McWhinneys to use the Metro District dollars for a trolley car for shoppers at
the proposed Grand Station. The council did allow the McWhinneys through their metro district to fund
$80 million of Metro District funds to build a private parking garage to be used in the proposed Grand
Station.
Bait and Switch
McWhinney Enterprises promised the City of Loveland a myriad of regional transportation improvements
(see list on upper right corner of this page) in exchange for being given the authority to divert sales and
property taxes in East Loveland for 25 years into a special metro district controlled by McWhinney.
Now the switch, the only improvements funded so far are those that directly impact commercial properties
the McWhinneys were trying to lease or sell at the time. In the meantime, the McWhinneys have been
working feverishly to divert new transportation dollars into their projects thus leaving more funds for
"improvements" that really appear to be thinly disguised subsidies of the project.
The result has been the inability of Loveland to effectively collaborate with surrounding cities or the State
of Colorado to fund badly needed improvements to the regional transportation infrastructure. Until
Loveland has a city council and city manager willing to hold McWhinney's feet to the fire by insisting they
fund the projects as agreed to in the original MFA, Loveland's ability to partner with other cities or the
state in obtaining new transportation dollars will be doubtful.
| Click on the image above to see the list of projects McWhinney Enterprises' Centerra Metro District was supposed to fund according agreement with city. Now they are seeking others to fund them. |
