Buying or selling in Centennial

Arapahoe County bills and collects the property tax on a Centennial home, and the county's offices hold the records. The county assessor is responsible for discovering, listing, classifying and valuing property, the treasurer collects the tax, and the clerk and recorder keeps the recorded documents. The treasurer's online tax search finds a property by address, and the clerk and recorder's official record search covers recorded real property documents such as a deed.

Building permits come from the city's Building Division, which issues permits and inspects the work, with applications through its online Self-Service Portal. Zoning is governed by the Land Development Code, Chapter 12 of the Municipal Code, and the city publishes a zoning map, a floodplain map, an HOA and neighborhood map and an airport influence area map. Law enforcement is provided under an agreement with the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office.

The most useful single lookup is the city's Property Search. Enter an address and it returns the zoning, the water district, the sanitation district, the stormwater authority, the public school district, the recreation district, the fire district, the electric and natural gas provider and the city council district.

The city does not provide water or sewer service, or gas, electricity or trash. Water and sewer come from several different districts, and the city's list includes the Arapahoe County Water and Wastewater Authority, East Cherry Creek Valley Water and Sanitation District, Southgate Water and Sanitation District, Willows Water District, South Arapahoe Sanitation District and Denver Water, among others. The city notes that much of Centennial's water comes through Denver Water distributors. Which provider serves a house is an address question, and the Property Search answers it.

Other services work the same way. South Metro Fire Rescue provides fire protection. Parks and recreation come from South Suburban Parks and Recreation District in the central and west portions of the city, from Trails Park and Recreation District generally east of Parker Road and north of Arapahoe Road, and from Smoky Hill Metro District in neighborhoods around Smoky Hill Road between Buckley and Tower roads. Xcel Energy and CORE Electric Cooperative supply gas and electricity, and trash and recycling are handled by private companies.

Some of these are metropolitan districts, a kind of special district that can levy its own property tax: East Valley Metro District is on the city's list of water and sanitation providers, and Smoky Hill Metro District among its park and recreation districts. The guide to metro districts explains how to find one on a tax bill and read its service plan.

Stormwater and floodplains are handled by the Southeast Metro Stormwater Authority, which serves the city and unincorporated Arapahoe County and charges an annual stormwater fee. Centennial regulates the 100-year floodplain, and the authority will provide a floodplain map for a specific property. A federally backed lender tells a borrower when flood insurance is required, so look before you offer rather than at the loan stage.

The city names two school districts serving its residents, Cherry Creek School District and Littleton Public Schools. District boundaries are not drawn to match city limits, and which district and which school serve a specific house is set by the district, not by a listing field. Cherry Creek assigns neighborhood schools by physical address and publishes an address locator; for Littleton Public Schools, confirm an address with the district directly.

The Property Search names the public school district for an address, which is a useful starting point, but the district is the authority. Here is how to check which school district an address is in.

Arapahoe Road is State Highway 88, and the city's transportation systems plan calls it perhaps the most important thoroughfare within Centennial. It meets I-25 at an interchange where CDOT replaced the I-25 bridge over Arapahoe Road and improved the interchange, with construction from May 2016 to spring 2018. The same plan names Parker Road (State Highway 83) and University Boulevard (State Highway 177) among the state highway corridors running through the city.

RTD's Dry Creek Station, at 9450 E Dry Creek Road, has a Centennial address and is served by the E, R and T lines. Arapahoe at Village Center Station, in neighboring Greenwood Village, is served by the same three lines. Drive the route you would actually use, at the hour you would use it, before deciding two parts of the city are equivalent.

Centennial became a city in 2001 around neighborhoods that were already there, so many of its houses are older than the city itself. The year a house was built sets the inspection list more than the address does.

For a house from the 1960s into the early 1980s, the usual questions are aluminum branch wiring, the make and capacity of the electrical panel, the sewer line to the main, and asbestos in ceiling texture or older flooring. The guide to buying a 1970s house covers each. The city also passes on Denver Water's point that water supplied lead-free can pick up lead from household fixtures, plumbing and customer-owned service lines, which is worth asking about in an older house. The radon guide explains why testing is routine here.

On a newer house, the questions are usually any metro district levy and the association documents, both of which the Colorado contract gives you time to read. An addition or a renovation needs a permit from the city's Building Division, and the Centennial homes for sale page has more on the city's districts and house eras.