The Bill’s Ranch neighborhood just outside Frisco needs a way to better fund the maintenance and snow clearance of its streets, according to a Summit County staff memo about an application to form the Bill’s Ranch Metropolitan District.

A group known as the Bill’s Ranch Neighborhood Association handles road maintenance and snow clearance in the neighborhood, but it is currently funded by voluntary payment of membership dues. The association’s members decided to apply to form a special metro district to address the lack of road maintenance funding.

The Summit Board of County Commissioners considered the application at its May 13 meeting, although, the issue had come before the board previously and been continued to give the neighborhood association time to revise its proposed service plan.

County staff’s review of the metro district application found it did not meet the criteria required to justify forming a metro district. Several criteria relate to the proposed district only servicing one immediate and ongoing need — road maintenance — when metro districts must service multiple existing or projected needs.

Summit County Senior Planner Simon Corson presented staff findings to the board and said he and Bill Kinnard, the neighborhood association president, have discussed options outside of a metro district. 

Corson said creating a public improvement district came up the last time the commissioners talked about this issue, and Bill’s Ranch residents expressed concern over how that type of district would be controlled by the county, as opposed to a metro district, which is a quasi-governmental entity with its own board.

“I confirmed with the county’s attorney’s office that the county would not, for example, pave the roads or commence another improvement that was not contained in the original (public improvement district) petition without the required voter approvals,” Corson said.

Kinnard spoke at the meeting and said the neighborhood association still believes a metro district would be the best way to fund road maintenance in Bill’s Ranch. He said the association considered a homeowners association structure but had concerns not all residents would pay their fees, which would lead to lawsuits.

The neighborhood association’s concern with a public improvement district, Kinnard said, is what Corson described — that the county would have too much control over Bill’s Ranch. He emphasized that the current road maintenance funding structure is unsustainable.

“The Bill’s Ranch board and neighborhood would not have put itself through the last year if we found the status quo to be one that we had any hope for,” Kinnard said.

Kinnard said the neighborhood association’s vision would be a “stripped down” metro district, which it believes could be in line with relevant state statute, that would operate with a limited budget.

“The budget proposed for this district is about 35% more than the budget we’ve been running on, inflation adjusted, for 25 years,” Kinnard said. “We’re in a position to say what it takes to keep the roads how they are now and what it would take to keep them more or less stable over the foreseeable future.”

County staff’s memo expressed concern about the proposed funding structure. With such a low budget — $65,000 a year, according to the memo — the service plan stated the metro district would have no intention of taking on debt. The memo stated that the district would need to take on debt if it ever pursued public improvements outside of road maintenance.

The service plan that staff memo reviewed proposed parks and recreation as the only service the district would provide besides road maintenance and snow clearing. It budgeted $1,000 for parks recreation services, but the only service listed was installing dog waste stations, something the staff memo stated does not necessitate the formation of a metro district.

An earlier version of the service plan included wildfire mitigation, solid waste management and water as proposed services but did not budget any funds for them. Kinnard said the neighborhood association had included them in case the metro district ever wanted to provide those services.

Kinnard asked that the board approve the formation of the metro district with the condition that the applicant and county staff work together to create a simple fire mitigation program. He said the neighborhood association has done fire mitigation in the past.

“We’ve put up signage, we’ve done education,” Kinnard said. “It would be a small budget item, but I think an important and very legitimate one.”

Two Bill’s Ranch residents gave public comments supporting the points Kinnard had made to the board and advocating for the commissioners to approve the metro district.

Commissioner Tamara Pogue said she would vote for approval of the metro district, although she was not sure it would be best for as small a neighborhood as Bill’s Ranch.

“I still don’t ultimately believe it will be successful, given how small Bill’s Ranch is and the financial implications of that,” Pogue said. “I think it’s your choice to vote on it, and I don’t think I can stand in the way of you all having that opportunity.”

Commissioners Nina Waters and Eric Mamula explained why they would not vote for the resolution. Waters questioned the idea that a public improvement district would give the county too much power and said it would take more extraordinary circumstances for her to vote against the staff’s recommendation.

Mamula said he did not think the proposed service plan met legal requirements but said the neighborhood association was welcome to revise and resubmit the plan.

The commissioners denied the resolution by a 2-1 vote, with Pogue voting to approve. All three expressed a desire to keep working with the neighborhood association to find a way to address Bill’s Ranch’s road maintenance issues.

“We have to work with this neighborhood to find an alternative solution,” Pogue said. “The standards are not adequate for this neighborhood, in my opinion, as it pertains to their roads.”