Banning Lewis Ranch Metro District Taxes: What Buyers Should Know

Since August 6, 2025, the seller of any home inside a Colorado metropolitan district has had to give the buyer a dollar estimate of that district's property taxes for the year of the sale. Before HB25-1219, that figure didn't need to be stated in dollars. In the newer subdivisions east of Powers Boulevard, it's often the line that separates two homes with the same list price.

The 2026 budget for Banning Lewis Ranch Metro District No. 3 shows total obligations that were higher at the end of 2025 than at the start, and are projected to grow again in 2026, even though the district is paying down its bonds.

What the Seller's Packet Now Has to Contain

HB25-1219 requires sellers of homes inside a metro district to provide:

• Access to the district's annual notice to electors and its service plan
• Information on the district's authority to issue debt, levy property taxes, and charge fees, rates, tolls, and penalties
• A dollar estimate of the district's property taxes for collection in the year of sale
• A copy of the current certificate of taxes due or tax statement, which shows the other overlapping levies
• A written statement that certain district actions may increase costs to residents

The law also requires metro district websites to list board members, meeting dates, and the overlapping governments, plus a contact for questions both during and after business hours. New service plans must state the maximum term for a debt-service levy on residential property. These are transparency rules. They don't lower any existing levy.

What a Mill Costs on an Eastside Home

The El Paso County Treasurer defines a mill as $1 of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value. For the 2026 tax year, Colorado's Division of Property Taxation sets the residential assessment rate for local-government levies at 6.80%. That rate applies after a 10% reduction of the first $700,000 of actual value, with a minimum assessed value of $1,000. Metro district levies are local-government levies.

Take a hypothetical home valued at $500,000. Reducing the value by 10% leaves $450,000. At 6.80%, that's $30,600 of assessed value, so every mill costs about $30.60 a year. The 2026 levies haven't been posted yet, so the table below uses the most recent ones the county lists, which are for tax year 2025, billed in 2026. It shows what each would cost on this home in tax year 2026 if the district kept the same levy. Districts reset their levies every December, so treat these figures as an illustration, not a forecast and not a 2025 bill.

You can't add these rows together. Banning Lewis Ranch splits its work across several districts. The district's own site calls No. 1 the operating district, and the financing districts are the ones that can levy taxes and issue debt. The county lists No. 1, No. 9, No. 10, and No. 11 at zero mills. Which rows apply to a particular home appears on that parcel's tax statement. That's why the law makes the seller hand it over.

The last row of the table is the Stetson Hills Special Improvement District. It's a different type of district, and its levy was exactly 3.858 mills every year from tax year 2020 through tax year 2025. On the hypothetical $500,000 home, the gap between the SIMD and a single 39-to-64-mill financing district is about $1,100 to $1,800 a year. That comes from one line of the bill, before any of the other taxes on it.

What Sits Beside 14 Mills of Debt Service

Banning Lewis Ranch Metro District No. 3's 39.471 mills split into 25.471 mills for general operations and 14.000 mills for debt service. The budget says the operations money is passed to District No. 1, the operating district. The debt-service payments follow the amortization schedule for the district's Series 2020 General Obligation Refunding Bonds, which mature December 1, 2045, and the levy pledged to those bonds is capped at 30 mills, as adjusted. The bonds are only one line on the budget's schedule of long-term obligations:

Only $7.5 million of the total is bonds. The largest single item is interest that has built up on the developer's capital advances, and at about $63.2 million it is roughly double the $31.3 million advanced.

The year-over-year movement is what matters. The budget estimates that in 2025 the district added $2,444,238 in obligations and repaid $269,058. For 2026 it projects $2,444,238 in additions and $282,962 in repayments, which would bring the total to $111,883,134 by the end of 2026. The bonds are shrinking, from $7.71 million to a projected $7.275 million across those two years. Total obligations are growing anyway, because interest on the developer advances accrues faster than the repayments.

For a buyer, this changes the usual "it'll go down once the roads are paid off" assumption in two ways. The bonds the 14 mills are paying for run through 2045. And beyond those bonds, the district carries more than $100 million in developer advances and accrued interest that grew during 2025 and are projected to grow again in 2026, with no repayment shown against them in either year. The budget doesn't say how or when those advances will be repaid. These figures are the district's own estimates, and they can change.

Levies Move Every Year, in Both Directions

None of the levies in the table stays fixed. Between tax year 2024 and tax year 2025, the county's figures show:

1. Banning Lewis Ranch No. 4 fell from 66.696 to 63.631 mills
2. Banning Lewis Ranch No. 2 fell from 47.879 to 46.469 mills
3. Banning Lewis Ranch No. 3 fell from 40.197 to 39.471 mills
4. Banning Lewis Ranch No. 5 rose from 61.025 to 62.47 mills
5. Banning Lewis Ranch No. 8 rose from 60.28 to 61.321 mills

A few miles away, Stetson Ridge Metro District No. 2 dropped from 24.11 to 15.716 mills and No. 3 dropped from 39.135 to 34.255. In the Old Ranch group of districts, the county lists Upper Cottonwood Creek Metro Districts No. 2 through No. 5 at 50.942, 63.655, 61.770, and 77.056 mills for tax year 2025. The county also lists a Powers Metro District at 59.946 mills. Your seller's disclosure covers one year of this. The county's mill levy table goes back to tax year 2020 and gives you the trend.

The state has limited how far these levies can climb. According to Colorado Newsline, SB23-110 capped metro district property tax increases and barred foreclosure over unpaid district fees.

How Large District Debt Has Played Out Elsewhere in Colorado Springs

Big developer obligations are common across the city, and they can lead to more than one outcome. In 2024, The Gazette reported that residents had won control of the boards of Flying Horse Metro Districts 2 and 3 but were still disputing more than $17 million in costs with the developer-controlled District 1. The proposed settlement directed 3 mills a year to District 1 for 15 years, allowed 7 mills for operations and maintenance, and went to voters that November.

Colorado Newsline's coverage of a state audit, published in February 2025, identified Colorado Springs' Lowell Metro District as reporting $11.8 million of debt against $370,000 in assets. The audit analyzed districts active between 2020 and 2022, so those figures describe that period. They aren't a current balance sheet.

In both cases, as with the Banning Lewis Ranch No. 3 ledger, the obligations were set years before today's buyers arrived, and what happens to them depends on district finances and board decisions, not on whether the neighborhood looks finished.

Reading the Packet Before You Write an Offer

Three public sources fill in what the disclosure summary leaves out:

• Boundaries. The El Paso County Assessor's metro district maps show which district covers which streets. The Assessor notes that each property's record page lists its taxing entities.
• History. The Treasurer's mill levy table shows six tax years for each district.
• Debt. District websites post their budgets. Look at the obligations schedule, not just the levy. The Banning Lewis Ranch Metro District site is where the No. 3 budget above is posted.

Timing affects the rest of the bill too. El Paso County reappraises in odd-numbered years and mails notices of value shortly after May 1. A new valuation multiplies every mill on the statement.

FAQ

Does HB25-1219 lower metro district taxes? No. It requires disclosure, website information, and a stated maximum debt-service term in new service plans. It doesn't reduce existing levies.

Is the Stetson Hills SIMD a metro district? No. The county lists it as a special improvement district, at 3.858 mills for tax year 2025.

Why does a district with only $7.5 million in bonds show $109.7 million in obligations? At Banning Lewis Ranch Metro District No. 3, most of the total is developer advances and the interest that has accrued on them.

If you're comparing homes east of Powers and want the district levies, the debt schedules, and the seller's tax disclosure lined up side by side before you make an offer, The Lauber Group can pull those records with you. If you're selling inside a metro district, we can also put together the HB25-1219 disclosure packet and help you estimate what your home is worth.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.