Boulder City Council received its Spring 2026 briefing on DDA formation feasibility, completing the study phase that began in late 2025. The city is now targeting a Fall 2026 voter decision. Boulder would be the first Colorado city of its size and profile to form a DDA, joining Fort Collins, Denver, and Longmont on the list of Colorado cities that have used the instrument to manage downtown reinvestment.

The DDA formation is on a parallel track with a separate residential-only vacancy tax that Council is advancing to the November ballot. The citizen-led Vacancy to Vitality campaign — which would have taxed both residential and commercial vacant properties — dropped its 2026 ballot initiative on April 21, deferring to the Council's residential-only version ($2,000 per year on homes vacant more than half the year). For commercial corridor managers, the commercial vacancy tax threat documented in Issue 1 as a dual-track concern is resolved for this cycle.

If both the DDA formation ballot and the residential vacancy tax are on the same November ballot, they will interact in voter perception. DDA formation requires voters within the proposed boundary to approve the TIF plan and, if desired, an operations mill levy. Voters who are simultaneously being asked to approve a new residential vacancy tax may have different reactions to an additional special district formation than voters who face only one new fiscal question.

Watch: Whether the DDA formation ballot question makes the November ballot on the same day as the residential vacancy tax, and whether the two questions interact in ways that complicate passage of either.

Source: City of Boulder DDA Formation Project page; Boulder Reporting Lab, April 21, 2026.