Denver set to issue $116M in project bonds

Denver public works officials have received approval to borrow an initial $116 million for the Platte to Park Hill storm drainage projects and to buy up 27 properties needed for a channel along 39th Avenue.

The issuing bonds will allow the city to get started on the design and construction of several controversial projects that have stirred passions in several northeast Denver neighborhoods. That vocal opposition is based in part on flood protection connections to the state’s Interstate 70 project.

The City Council on Monday night voted 9-3 to approve the bond issuance, which is capped at $116 million, and the property acquisitions in the 39th Avenue corridor between Franklin and Steele streets.

About $115 million from the bonds will go toward a Platte to Park Hill budget that is expected to range between $267 million and $298 million in coming years. City officials have said they likely will seek to borrow up to $91 million more in a future bond issuance, with other sources covering the remainder.

Those bonds will be paid off using recent double-digit percentage increases in Denver’s storm drainage and sewer fees, which also will cover other projects. The higher fees will cost the average single-family household $116 more a year by 2020.

While the Platte to Park Hill projects’ inclusion in the storm increases plan sparked vigorous debate in the council in June, its vote Monday came with little discussion.

Debbie Ortega noted that she had lodged several objections to the projects in recent months and said she wouldn’t repeat them. She joined Rafael Espinoza and Paul Kashmann, who also opposed the rate hikes, in voting no on the new measures.

The controversy stems from the Platte to Park Hill projects’ scope and cost, plus the fact that many of the drainage improvementser in the Montclair and Park Hill basins will be felt in areas to the north of the neighborhoods hosting the projects.

Platte to Park Hill’s major pieces are a detention area at City Park Golf Course, which will require major changes to the course and a significant loss of trees; the new mile-long 39th Avenue open drainage channel, lined with 12 acres of new open space; the creation of a second detention area on the northeast corner of Park Hill Golf Club, to slow the flow of stormwater northward; and a larger outfall on the South Platte River at Globeville Landing Park to handle water directed there, through underground pipes, from the other components.