Guide to Starting a NECO Pass Neighborhood

If you do not live in a current NECO Pass Neighborhood, you can start a new one with the support of your neighbors.

A neighborhood is a contiguous group of residential blocks.

• Residential blocks are an area of land bounded on all sides by streets, roads, or one or more geographic feature, such as lakes, rivers, railroad tracks, highways, parks, large open spaces of land, and neighborhood boundaries (i.e. HOAs) or commercial areas.
• Contiguous: sharing an edge or boundary

The cost to start a new neighborhood is $175/household (this covers every resident of the household).

It is important to keep in mind that when starting a neighborhood, RTD charges for each household on the blocks you choose, whether those neighbors choose to contribute funds or not.

While there isn't a minimum number of households needed to participate, there is an RTD contract fee minimum: $7,000. This equates to 40 households each paying $175.

New neighborhoods receive a 50% subsidy from the City of Boulder.

• For example, if you have 50 households in a neighborhood, your RTD contract would be $8,750 however after the 50% city subsidy, your neighborhood contract would be $4,375. This equates to $87.50 per household.

Existing neighborhoods receive a 33% - 39% subsidy from the city, dependent on the amount of affordable housing in your neighborhood, as follows:

• +2% additional subsidy for neighborhoods with 10-25% affordable housing units

• +4% additional subsidy for neighborhoods with 26-50% affordable housing units

• +6% additional subsidy for neighborhoods with over 50% affordable housing units

There are many options for reaching out to your neighbors, such as using Nextdoor and printing door hangers or flyers for your neighborhood. You can also use the RTD NECO Pass fact sheet (PDF).

Mailing Addresses Contact the NECO Pass Program Coordinator to get your residents’ addresses and return address sheets for printing. All printing and folding can be done for FREE at Allegra, located at 2595 Canyon Blvd. Suite 150 Boulder, CO 80302. Please reach out to Judith at (303) 569-4518 for requests and digital orders.

Mailing Process If your mail does not meet these requirements, it will not be accepted for mailing:

• All NECO Pass mailings must be placed in an envelope; The City of Boulder does not supply or reimburse for envelopes

• No self-adhesive envelopes will be accepted unless you seal them first

• The flap on the envelope needs to be down and make sure it is not folded over the next envelope

• The envelopes do not need to be sealed unless you are using self-adhesive envelopes in which case you MUST seal them prior to dropping them off to be mailed.

Once you have your mailing in the envelopes as described above:

• Contact the City of Boulder NECO Pass program coordinator to get your return address sheet for printing.

• The residents’ addresses and the City of Boulder return address must be on your envelope before you drop them off. Once your envelopes are ready at the City of Boulder Transportation & Mobility office on the second floor of the Park Central Building at 1739 Broadway.

Each person who receives an NECO Pass needs to provide verification of residence. If you have a student in your household who needs to provide this, you can visit do so via Infinite Campus. Under Household Information, their address is shown. Print this page to show proof of residency to RTD.

No. BBBF merely offers this service as a convenience for neighborhood groups that do not have a checking account. If you have an account you should deal directly with RTD.

RTD provides each neighborhood with their NECO Pass contract. The NECO Pass Coordinator and the neighborhood coordinator review the contract amount and details. The BBBF treasurer uses the contract amount to determine when the neighborhood has enough money in its account for the contract.

Keep in mind:

• All deposits made from a CheddarUp fee collection account (to gather neighborhood fees) will have a fee deduction. The BBBF treasurer will deduct these fees from the amount owed by the neighborhood on the RTD contract and add them to the amount owed by the City of Boulder.

• After the neighborhood coordinator lets BBBF know that the final deposit is in the checking account, BBBF will hold the funds for a week to make sure they are available before issuing the RTD check.

Send an email to the treasurer, Kelly Burton, at rovingkelly@gmail.com. In an emergency, call her cell at 303-621-5832. We typically do BBBF bookkeeping once per week, so if you need a reply immediately, please clearly indicate that in the beginning of your email.

Make checks payable to “BBBF”. Make sure that all checks show the name, local address, and phone number of the writer.

You do not need to endorse the checks. The tellers can stamp the checks with a generic endorsement. If you encounter any problems making your deposit, contact the BBBF staff immediately.

The BBBF account number is 1192419131.

The BBBF will return the check via US Mail to the neighborhood coordinator for collection. We will deduct the bank fee (currently $20) from your balance. If this puts you below your contract amount you are expected to make up the difference prior to your contract deadline. We suggest you get the writer of the check to reimburse you in cash for the check plus the $20 fee.

Any Chase Bank branch can accept your deposits.

After you have finished fundraising, you should make a single deposit at least 7 business days prior to your contract deadline.

A single deposit ensures the smoothest process. If you have “stragglers” that come in after the deadline you can submit a second deposit at your convenience. If you need to make multiple deposits for some reason, please make arrangements with BBBF first so we can ensure that your deposits are processed correctly. The account is unable to earn interest, so there is little incentive to deposit the money quickly.