Highlands Ranch Herald Newspaper Comments about the Energy City Press Conference
Student efforts target ballot
By: Robyn Lydick, Highlands Ranch Herald Staff Writer 05/01/2008
Not every high school gets the governor talking about senior projects. But ThunderRidge High School did for 16 students who really are trying to change the world, starting with Highlands Ranch.
Instead of shadowing a professional, planting trees or creating a one-time event, this pack of students - the second to work on the project - developed business models for an alternative energy business incubator and a plan to make the incubator pay for an eventual incorporated Highlands Ranch.
They are so sure, that senior Will Palamet announced a goal of putting the “clean energy city of Highlands Ranch” on the ballot in 2010.
Gov. Bill Ritter, a green advocate himself, joked from a podium in the school library that he wanted to be on the ballot with the initiative. Ultimately, the students want to see Highlands Ranch off the grid by 2020. One way they hope to achieve this is by a new form of incorporation.
Creating a new form of incorporation for a city requires changing the state Constitution. Ritter said that he would possibly support the idea. “We look at changing the state Constitution all the time,” he said. “I think I could support that.”
Steve Taraborelli, who originally approached the school two years ago about the clean-energy project, said that with a new form of incorporation, a city could support itself on royalty payments from business incubator graduates, not property taxes.
“Statistics say that for every $1 (invested) in a startup reaps $30 in (local tax revenue) the local economy,” Taraborelli said. “It’s a good return on investment.” Taraborelli’s vision does not include venture capital. He said that venture capitalists tend to want control.
Businesses that survive would have space in a light industrial park that the students located on land near Lucent and Highlands Ranch Parkway. Others could locate throughout Douglas County, Taraborelli said.
Speaking to an assembled audience of about 60 people, Taraborelli quoted the 1998 film, “Rounders.” “You can’t lose what you don’t put in the middle, but you can’t win much, either,” he said. “Highlands Ranch is putting money in the middle (of the energy table). Energy (companies always manage to keep the) house rake. (Now it is time that Highlands Ranch) can keep the rake.”
