Further to my earlier comment and in response to Paul Tiger, I don't know whether or not it would be a special tax district. The cooperative would not run the enterprise directly as you would want to keep the inevitable diversity of opinions separate. The co-op would only have controlling interest and obviously the majority of board members would be elected by the co-op. The city would be a partner and would share under agreement its infrastructure with the enterprise. Dividends could be passed back to the community via the cooperative. Other local buying incentives and programs could also be promoted under the cooperative and go so far as to create your own community’s "Bailey Savings and Loan". The model is merely similar to a Native American tribe owning and have major control of lumber companies, casinos and even utilities. A Native American tribe is essentially like a cooperative. The model being privately driven is very democratic, very capitalistic, and avoids pitting the private sector against the public sector. It is a very empowering model with the virtues that America once stood for, and interestingly enough, if the monopolies were to embrace the model they could benefit immensely as well.

Here's a concept that is not really new but would empower the Longmont community through a very democratic and cooperative endeavor. By establishing the Longmont Community Development Cooperative made up of all the local residents, businesses, associations and institutions an enterprise, profit or non-profit, could be created which would enter into a private/public partnership with Longmont Power and Communications, which I assume is City owned. The cooperative would have controlling interest and the mission of the enterprise would be to create an open access network over which service providers, like incumbents, may operate, thereby opening the network for competitive providers. The same cooperative would foster other community cooperatives as a further move towards sustainability and it could create a community foundation through which bonds might be issued and grants applied for while facilitating philanthropic donations. For more insight into this methodology, we have a website that you might want to investigate: http://communitydevelopmentcooperative.wordpress....

Furthermore, the co-op could also establish a community foundation through which grants could be applied for as well as receiving USF and local philantrophic gifts. With the privatized Federal Reserve being in such dire straits, the community foundation could go so far as to have its own currency to foster and measure local buying. Why not even create a local co-operative community bank? Some of the detail and links I have put up under http://communitydevelopmentcooperative.wordpress.com with a running commentary in the form of posts on my own endeavors in my community of Maple Valley, Washington.

There is a way for the public and private sector to coexist amicably in building community networks. A community should establish a community development co-operative made up of all the residents, businesses and institutions, one vote, one share. The same co-op would own controlling interest in an enterprise which would build an open access network and/or community media center while allowing for competition and local investment with 49% of the enterprise being available for equity investment purposes. In this way, a private/public partnership has been established keeping the diverse community interests and personalities out of the actual running of the enterprise. The local incumbents now have a way to increase their business while also having an exit strategy. Dividends could be passed back to the co-op. The model is not unlike Native American enterprises where tribes own casinos, fisheries, lumber companies, etc. which are in turn controlled by a board of directors whose majority is made up of tribe members, not necessarily members of the band council.