Cobblewood Homeowners Association HOA at Exposition Park

Cobblewood Streets Project

 

2017 UPDATE

The creation of a General Improvement District with the City of Aurora passed in 2016, and the Cobblewood Homeowner’s Association is moving forward with the process of conveying our neighborhood streets to the City of Aurora.  The streets will be repaired and brought up to code in 2017, likely in July or August of this summer.  

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On January 6, 2017, there was a meeting of the Cobblewood Homeowner’s Association wherein members voted:
•    To repeal the $1,000/year Special Assessment instituted in 2015.  
•    To refund any dues paid toward the Special Assessment in 2016.  

 

At the January 6th meeting, homeowners also voted to lower the yearly dues assessment from $590 to $390 per year, beginning 2017.  Therefore, your 2017 dues will be $390. 

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Thank you to all residents for your participation in HOA and city meetings to make this happen!

 

 

APRIL 2016 UPDATE

 

South Kingston Circle, our privately owned street in Cobblewood is in terrible shape and needs major repairs!  Over the years we, your Homeowners’ Association Board, have tried our best to keep the street in passable shape so small cars do not disappear in the potholes.

 

Over the years we have managed to keep the street in decent shape but it now requires some very expensive repairs.  It is difficult to find a contractor who will undertake these repair with any guarantee of success.  We discussed this problem at the annual homeowners meeting last August. 

 

In our search for a solution to this problem, we discovered that the City of Aurora has available an opportunity for residents to tax themselves and receive some kind of special benefit.  They have done this for neighborhoods to replace their wood fences with masonry ones and have even reconstructed a private sewer system so that it met city standards and could be accepted into the city’s system.  We have had numerous meetings over the past three years with Aurora officials to discuss using this taxing process as a financing mechanism to repair our street.    

 

Just recently, we have received notice that Aurora will work with our neighborhood and permit us to tax ourselves to get the street repaired, brought up to city standards and then become part of the city’s street system.  That would mean that we homeowners would no longer need to worry about special assessments or search for a contractor to undertake repairs.

 

The financing mechanism that we would use is a General Improvement District.  A general Improvement District (GID) allows taxpayers to vote and, with a majority in favor, to have the City of Aurora replace our street with one that meets city standards.  The street would then be placed in the city’s road system.  Each homeowner would pay a part of the cost of the improvement through the property tax process over a 20-year period.  This would show up on your Arapahoe County real estate taxes.   

 

Since receiving the go-ahead from the city to begin this GID process, we now need to move quickly so that we can be on the November, 2016 ballot.  Only our property owners and registered voters (residents) of the GID would be voting on the Cobblewood street improvements.

 

One of the major benefits of having the city taking over our street is we would never again be responsible for maintenance of South Kingston Circle.  To date we have spent over $200,000 on maintenance.  This was funded through assessments and using our accumulated annual dues.  We have approximately $70,000 in the bank at the moment, some of which we could apply toward the cost of the street project (either put toward the cost of repairing the street ourselves or “buying down” the GID discussed above).

 

Additional benefits include increased property values based on appearance and no standing water after rain/snow storms.

 

As mentioned previously, the GID is funded through the tax process.  Homeowners who itemize their deductions come income tax time can deduct property (real estate) taxes as an expense on Schedule A.  That tempers the increase in your property taxes.

 

Also, should you move, you do not continue to share the cost of this project – the property taxes stay with the property.  This would not be the case of an assessment.  It there was an unpaid assessment against the property, it would have to be paid prior to the property being sold.

 

City officials are finalizing the construction, legal and financing costs for our project and will be hosting a meeting for all property owners and registered voters in the district in April.    At that meeting they will have a petition for us so that we can collect 30% of the registered voters in the district in order to be placed on the November ballot.

 

We need your support in this process to improve your street!

 

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Gary Raisio at 303-475-0929 or garyraisio@comcast.net

 

Not registered to vote or need to change your address?  Just go to www.GoVoteColorado.com