In July, Cornerstone Holdings, the owners of Grand Park development in Fraser, requested the town board allow them to raise taxes and increase the time limit of taxation for Grand Park’s 255 residents.

Clark Lipscomb, president of the Real Estate Division of Cornerstone Holdings, submitted an amended service plan agreement laying out the proposed tax increases for Grand Park’s metro districts. 

Grand Park is made up of three special metro districts: West Meadow, West Mountain and Byers View. Metro districts serve large developments like Grand Park to divide the costs of services and improvements between the residents. The districts act like a local government that can levy and collect taxes for those services. Service plan agreements set the tax rates and timelines.

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Currently, the Fraser Town Board has not voted on whether to approve the tax increases. During their Oct. 5 meeting, trustees expressed intent to wait until residents are fully represented on the metro district’s board. Currently, Clark Lipscomb and his wife Meredith Lipscomb are the only board members on the West Meadow district board. Board elections will be held this May, and residents can run to represent their fellow community members on the board.

As the town continues to deliberate on Cornerstone’s proposed tax increases, Town Manager Ed Cannon has stressed that this process is transparent and he encourages public input.

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Cannon shared the following official public statement:

Title 32 of the Colorado Revised Statutes spells out the authority of municipal governments relating to metropolitan district service plans.  This authority includes the power to 1) approve the service plan submitted without condition or modification, 2) to disapprove the service plan submitted, or 3) to conditionally approve the service plan subject to the submission of additional information relating to, or the modification of, the proposed service plan or by agreement with the proponents of the proposed service plan.  

The Fraser Town Board will would like to clarify that the formal consideration of the recently submitted amended service plans for West Meadow, West Mountain, and Byers View Metropolitan Districts will be and was always intended to be a public and transparent process.  The Town Board is taking the submissions seriously and has engaged special council and a municipal advisor to assist in the Town’s review and is in the initial stages of gathering information and advice on the proposals and related process. Fraser has also received numerous comments from residents, and all of the public comments on the submissions thus far have been heard and the Town Board encourages continued public engagement in this process.  

The Town Board intends to formally gather public input on the submissions prior to undertaking any final consideration of the proposals.  This will include, at minimum, a formal public hearing at a Town Board meeting.  In accordance with standard procedures, the Town will continue to provide public notices for each of the next steps in this process.

The town’s next meeting on Grand Park’s amended service plans took place on Wednesday Oct. 26. The meeting was an executive session, meaning no public hearing took place. The next public meeting will be on Nov. 2.