Profiting off the backs of the residents

We have been a resident of Sterling Ranch, located near Roxborough State Park, since the early summer of 2020. It seemed like a great community and location to raise our young kids in. Let us start with the positives: our neighbors are great, we like the location in Douglas County, and enjoy the amenities of our house. Unfortunately, this is all tarnished by the shady and possible illegal practices of the developers and owners.

Before a single house was built, resident TABOR rights were voted away by the owners/developers. Metro Districts that were established were setup in such a way to further remove rights from residents, starting with the pledge agreement. This agreement sees every metro district pledge its funds to the CAB, which allows the bypassing of laws metro districts need to follow. Due to this configuration the finances are essentially a black box where even metro district board members cannot see each line item. Money comes into a metro district and then it disappears behind the curtain of the CAB.

The CAB setup the metro districts in such a way that they perpetually have a super-majority vote over the other metro districts. Metro District 1 in Sterling Ranch is made up exclusively of owners and developers who get a total of five votes. Metro Districts 2 and 3, which have residents, each only get a single vote. It does not matter what resolutions a metro district draws up, it does not matter how metro districts 2 and 3 vote, the CAB can out vote them every single time. This allows the CAB to continue to increase their debt without any oversight or influence from the metro districts. The CAB, as an Intergovernmental Association (IGA), they get to issue the debt and benefit from the interest on the bonds they take out to consolidate this debt.

Another troubling aspect of the metro districts is that the attorney representing each metro district is also the attorney for the CAB. This is an egregious conflict of interest. This alignment allows the lawyer to potentially poison the well and attempt to influence metro district board members to vote in favor of the CAB. The board members do not have a non-biased counsel to defer to.

Bottomline: Due to the structure of the CAB and the metro districts at Sterling Ranch, residents have no voice, debt is accrued unchecked, the developers/owners benefit greatly financially, and if things do not change, residents will be left with the burden of picking up the pieces and saddled with enormous debts to pay off.