After listening in and observing an HOA budget ratification meeting, it got me thinking: "We also pay a lot of money through our taxes towards the metro district—where does that money go?"

If you've wondered this, keep reading. If you have no clue what a metro district is, definitely keep reading, as you're spending thousands of dollars each year towards it. I've included a map at the end if you're curious about the boundary lines of the Lanterns districts.

Here's an example: our home in Montaine assessed for $10,319 annually for taxes (ouch). Our HOA dues are $165/month (for now), or $1,980 per year.

Here is a breakdown of a $10,319 tax bill (annually):

$5,277 goes straight to the metro district

$2,987 goes to Douglas County School District

$1,317 goes to Castle Rock city government

$434 goes to Douglas County School District debt

$234 goes to Douglas County Library (a gentle reminder to get your "free" library card)

$61 goes to the Town of Castle Rock

$7 goes to Cedar Hill Cemetery Association. Touché, Benjamin Franklin.

Metro districts are important—we pay over twice as much towards them as we do the HOA. They typically get much less visibility than the HOA and can lead to major challenges. Take The Meadows Metro District, for example. They're $434 million in debt and growing.

What Is a Metro District?

A metropolitan district is a form of local government created under Colorado law to finance, build, operate, and maintain public infrastructure. The price tag to develop Montaine was quite steep, so instead of paying for the development upfront, bonds are issued and then we, as homeowners, pay back the money it took to build the infrastructure for our beloved community—plus interest, of course.

So the next time you're on a walk, keep your chin high knowing you've spent—and will keep spending—thousands of dollars on these sewers, roads, and sidewalks.

What Is an HOA?

A Homeowners Association (HOA) is a private nonprofit corporation created to manage a neighborhood's covenants and private amenities. HOAs are funded by dues paid by homeowners and are governed by boards elected by property owners. Our HOA handles landscaping, snow removal, maintaining our community center and park, covenant enforcement, and those Christmas decorations that we're still tracking down.

What Each One Pays For

HOA budgets usually pay for day-to-day neighborhood operations: landscaping, pools, community centers, playgrounds, insurance, management, legal fees, and long-term maintenance reserves.

Metro district budgets focus on public infrastructure: roads, drainage systems, utilities, sidewalks, street lighting, and sometimes public parks or trails.

How Metro District Bonds Work

To build infrastructure before homes are fully built, metro districts issue municipal bonds. These bonds provide upfront cash to construct roads, utilities, drainage, and other improvements. Homeowners repay those bonds over time through property taxes called debt service mill levies. This allows Castle Rock communities to be built without drastically raising home prices at the beginning.

Why Metro Districts Show Large Debt

Metro district debt represents long-term infrastructure financing, not overspending. The large numbers often reflect decades of future bond payments, including interest. Some districts refinance bonds as interest rates change to reduce future tax burdens and shorten repayment timelines.

Elections and Governance

Metro districts are governed by publicly elected boards. Elections are held every two years in May of odd-numbered years, and registered voters within the district may vote.

HOAs hold private elections among homeowners. Metro districts operate under public election and open-record laws, while HOAs operate under corporate and covenant law.

Castle Rock Case Study: Lanterns vs The Meadows

Lanterns Metro District is a newer district created to fund infrastructure for the Montaine (Vista and Regency) neighborhood in Castle Rock. It consists of three different districts (see map below). Like most modern districts, it was established under a service plan approved by the Town of Castle Rock and Douglas County that includes limits on mill levies, debt amounts, and debt duration.

Lanterns issues bonds to pay for roads, sidewalks, drainage, lighting, and other public improvements. Those bonds are repaid through property taxes, and the district has the ability to refinance its debt to reduce future tax burdens as the community matures.

The Meadows is a much older and much larger master-planned community made up of seven metro districts. These districts issued bonds in the late 1980s to fund the infrastructure that allowed The Meadows to be built. In the early 1990s, those bonds were restructured and extended. Interest continued to accrue for decades, and the principal was not significantly reduced. As a result, what began as tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure debt grew into hundreds of millions of dollars in outstanding bond obligations over time.

For many years, The Meadows metro district boards were controlled by the developer rather than homeowners. This limited resident oversight of refinancing, debt repayment strategies, and transparency. As a result, homeowners paid property taxes for decades that primarily covered interest rather than reducing the principal balance of the debt. Only recently have residents begun to gain meaningful board representation to address these issues.

Lanterns (Montaine) and The Meadows illustrate two very different outcomes of metro district financing. Lanterns represents a modern approach with refinancing options, clear service plan limits, and resident board control. The Meadows reflects an older era of metro district finance where long-term interest accumulation and limited governance resulted in extremely high total debt.

How Does This Affect Home Prices?

We don't know yet. As I look at the data for home sales in The Meadows vs. Montaine, they're still quite similar. As I've educated my clients on metro districts, they've often discarded The Meadows as an option. Perhaps that will stay on a small case-by-case basis, or perhaps more people will catch on and the home prices will depreciate with the knowledge of the debt.

The Bottom Line

Metro districts are not inherently bad. They are a tool to finance public infrastructure that allows communities to be built sooner and more affordably. However, the structure of the bonds, the terms of repayment, and who controls the board all matter greatly. Understanding how your metro district operates is just as important as understanding your HOA when evaluating the true cost of homeownership in Castle Rock.

Ready to Buy in Castle Rock? Let's Talk About the True Costs.

Navigating metro districts, HOAs, and property taxes can be complex—especially when you're making one of the biggest investments of your life. Whether you're considering Montaine, The Meadows, or another Castle Rock community, I'm here to help you understand exactly what you're paying for—before you sign on the dotted line.

Schedule a consultation to get personalized guidance on finding the right home at the right price—with full transparency on metro district debt, HOA fees, and total ownership costs.