Lakewood, Morrison come together on new agreement - #lakewoodnews

The City of Lakewood and Town of Morrison have made revisions to the Rooney Valley Intergovernmental Agreement to simplify the development process in the valley.

"There are a lot of provisions in the current IGA that are difficult to administer and cumbersome to the development process," said Travis Parker, director of Lakewood's planning department. "We wanted to address three areas on the agreement --; land development procedures, revenue-sharing and municipal services."

The agreement applies to areas within both Lakewood and Morrison, as well as unincorporated land.

The agreement was unanimously approved by Morrison's board of trustees on April 4 and goes before Lakewood city council on April 25.

According to a memo written for Lakewood City Council by Parker, the original agreement between the two municipalities was approved in 2000, with amendments coming in 2009 and 2011. The agreement's aim was to eliminate competition and encourage revenue sharing and coordinating developments.

The agreement created a Joint Project Review Committee with three members from each jurisdiction to review new community plans, design guidelines, subdivisions, and site plans.

It also provided coordination of municipal services and included a revenue-sharing agreement for revenue coming from the valley.

"This update is something that has been in the works for a while from both Morrison and Lakewood," said Kara Zabilansky, Morrison's town administrator. "We want to simplify things for everyone."

All three main areas of the agreement were addressed in the update.

For land development projects, the Joint Project Review Committee has been replaced with the Rooney Valley Planning Commission, which would hear all land use and zoning matters in the valley. It also states that any application for a site plan would be processed by the jurisdiction wherein the property lies.

For revenue sharing, a new formula has been developed. Each municipality keeps track of only the commercial sales and use tax generated in the valley. Sixty percent of that total would be kept by the collecting municipality for municipal services to commercial properties. Ten percent of the revenue would be pro-rated between Lakewood and Morrison based on the number of residential unit and cost of municipal services to those units. The remaining 30 percent would be divided equally between the town and city.

In municipal services, the new agreement requires that all municipal services, unless otherwise agreed to, be provided by the respective jurisdiction. It also prohibits Morrison from providing municipal water or sewer services to unincorporated property in the Rooney Valley.

"We've heard from the development community that there is interest in growth in the area," Parker said. "Before that process was very complex, and these routine changes should make it easier for all."

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