Sterling Ranch - It Sounds Criminal...

I live in Sterling Ranch (Littleton) and am part of a metro district. The metro district governance here is crazy enough that people usually find it unbelievable or assume it must be illegal. Sadly, it is both real and legal.

Before anyone lived in Sterling Ranch, in 2013, our area developer set up an array of metro districts, removed their TABOR protections, then subordinated them all to a master Community Authority Board (CAB) in an intergovernmental agreement (IGA). That IGA has ludicrous conditions that give the developer indefinite control over all the metro districts - both their rules/covenants and their finances. This single-party "agreement" effectively revokes the metro districts' taxation and spending authority and delegates it to the CAB (which, again, the developer retains indefinite control of).

People live in Sterling Ranch, now - there are over 2,000 homes constructed. Despite these new voters, the developer (via CAB) retains control over the area's taxation, spending, service providers, and rules/covenants despite never actually being elected by residents. Residents elect metro district boards, sure... but our metro district boards, because of the CAB "agreement" the developer entered into with himself, have no real governmental power. The district boards are advised by the developer's/CAB's attorney. The districts' rules are set by the developer's/CAB's family members. The districts' mill levies are dictated by the developer/CAB. The districts' tax revenue is used to build out new developments for the developer. AND the districts' water utility is owned by that same the developer!

Simply put, the Sterling Ranch metro districts are legal avenues that a for-profit developer uses to privatize our community's tax revenue to underwrite that developer's businesses. As an aside, the developer gets to set the community's rather insane covenants - the people living here have no power to set the rules they live by! The developer played a clever game by subordinating the area metro districts to a CAB that the developer has indefinite control over. We, the residents, do not (and may never) elect the actual government (CAB).

When I tell people that my local government (which levies taxes on its citizens) is indefinitely unelected, can legally self-deal, and is presided over by the owner of (of all things) the water utility and local land development company.... people look at me as if I'm a conspiratorial nutcase. But these things are all well-established and often written down in legal filings. I live in an authoritarian kelptocracy. It's nuts, it's happening, and it's legal. This directly contradicts the CO Bill of Rights Article 2:

“All political power is vested in and derived from the people; all government, of right, originates from the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the whole.“

Colorado Bill of Rights (Article II, Section 1)

Residents in Master-Servant or CAB-like metro district systems live in patently authoritarian setups. It's unamerican and Colorado deserves better.