You may have noticed that warning in your Colorado Contract to Buy real estate regarding whether the property is located in a special district. While being in one is not necessarily a bad thing, some developers have taken advantage of loopholes to allow them to spend the collected tax monies on whatever they would like. See the brief overview of what a special district is below. If you are in a special district, and have concerns about how it is operating or what they are spending YOUR money on, go HERE.
Special Districts in Colorado are local governments, i.e., political subdivisions of the state, which make up a third level of government in the United States. (The federal and state governments are the other two levels.) Local governments include counties, municipalities (cities and towns), school districts, and other types of government entities such as “authorities” and “special districts.”
Colorado law limits the types of services that county governments can provide to residents. Districts are created to fill the gaps that may exist in the services counties provide and the services the residents may desire. The majority of districts draw their boundaries in unincorporated county land, but residents of a municipality may be included in one or more districts.
There are many types of special districts in Colorado. Districts organized under Title 32, Article 1 of the state statutes provide ambulance, fire protection, water, sanitary sewer, health, and park and recreation services. In addition to these single-purpose districts are metropolitan districts, which can provide multiple services, including those provided by single-purpose districts, except health services, as well as street construction and improvements, mosquito control, television relay and translation, transportation, and traffic-related safety enhancements.
These governmental entities can be very important to fund infrastructure for communities, but can also operate without transparency or proper representation of it’s constituents interests. Read the link below for complete information about them before purchasing a home or vacant piece of land within one!