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Yosemite Pam has just touched the third rail of the local politics below by even considering the merger commission and all of the ramifications that go along with it effort.
Since we have been talking about this Wal-Mart development and the local farmers and their rights to sell that property to move to Florida and live in their half a million dollar condos versus the rights of those left behind that must continue to work and live in the community for the next half century or more.
Currently that property is zoned R-1 and R-2. I can?’t make a judgment from the maps I can?’t see exactly how that is broken up and exactly how many new homes would be allowed to be built there if the commercial is rejected. Lets say for argument sake that is similar to the City?’s two lots per acre and since Rita was a big fan of that type of zoning lets call it that.
So the current developers want to build a $41 Million facility and they claim they want to provide for the infrastructure and roads to accommodate the project. That would mean that the assessed value (for tax purposes) would be around $14,350,000. From that assessed value it would generate a little over $500,000 per year for the schools with no children. The township would receive around $137,000 per year which includes the Fire Department. The county would receive around $120,000 per year which includes Police protection. If they partnered with the City with a JEDD then they could realize another $220,000 per year on income taxes going into this JEDD. They claim when completed the project will have a $22 Million payroll so the above is the 1% income tax.
Now lets compare what the taxes would be if that project were in the City of Pickerington. The Schools would still get their $500,000 plus in property taxes. The county would still get the $120,000 and the Township would receive around $110,000 per year, mainly for the fire department and a small amount for administrative. The City would not only receive the $222,000 for the personal income tax but each business would be taxed at the 1% rate. Since we don?’t know for sure who is locating there it is hard to determine what the business tax would be. I do believe stores like Giant Eagle and the old Big Bear brought in around $75,000 per year. In addition to the above taxes the City would also receive property taxes for their police levy and their general government levy. Which would come in at around $90,000 per year.
So comparing the township income versus the city income on like projects is: $757,000 (township and schools) versus the City which would be around $1,042,000 per year including the schools. The city figures do not include the Business Taxes. If the Township is able to work a JEDD with the City of Pickerington then their total income would be around $977,000 per year.
By Dan
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Merger continued
The major problem I see right here is that the infrastructure needs for this project go beyond the project boundaries. So a JEDD might be very limited in just how much it could provide in infrastructure for the future.
So then the question becomes who provides the infrastructure in the Township? Clearly at this point the County Engineer is responsible for the roads and the County Commissioners provide the police, water, and sewer services. Both have spoken out against this development because they probably feel they can?’t deliver in the time frame for the project. It should be noted here that the county was not involved with the Diley Road widening project. It was the two Municipalities and the Township with the coordinating efforts of MORPC and ODOT. Like someone said earlier, these projects take years to put together and federal money is not available until 2012 right now.
If this property were in the City then the city would have the full responsibly to provide the infrastructures to the project despite who the provider was. They all must seek and receive City approval to run sewer lines across and in City boundaries including the County. So my point here is the City could have already changed the zoning and controlled the progress of the project by with holding services until they were ready.
So I believe that with all things equal the City of Pickerington could exert more control over the project is they wanted to do so.
Now briefly if I could go back to an earlier point of current zoning versus proposed zoning. If the project were kept to the two lots per acre and you built say an average homes value of say $333,000 homes then that would to get a total project valuation of $41 Million we would need 123 homes of the above value to equal the commercial project. That would only use about 63 acres of this 106 acre project. A residential project of this size would add under 1,000 daily trips on Refugee Road. Compare that to the 1,400 parking spaces proposed in the big box project. If those parking spaces turn over just once a day then they put more traffic on the Road. The average number of kids per household is around 1 per. That is not all school age children. So even if we use the 1 per household then that project would add 123 new students to the system. Discounting the state?’s part of the formula then that means locally we pay around $4200 per pupil. The totally cost to the school system would be around $516,600 and this project would bring in that much from its property taxes. However to qualify for the mortgages these on that value of home new owners would need to have incomes in the $100,000 range thus each household would bring in an additional $123,000 to the schools. So far with high end homes the school system would make out.
By Dan
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More Merger
I think we all must consider what is before us and what we all might do to reach that point if the future. Clearly if any of you have visited this site for any amount of time you have seen and you have heard of JEDDs, CEDAs, Mergers, annexations and TIFs.
JEDD (Joint Economic Development District)
This is a long term agreement between a Municipality and a Township. Normally these agreements are for those remote areas around the Township which have no possible hope of getting annexed any time soon. The JEDD through an agreement for a JEDD board and the property remains in the Township. Issues like police power and fire remain the same for all practical purposes. I do understand that you could have say the Pickerington Police enforce the law within the big box development but they would only be able to enforce ordinances that are county wide mostly state law. The JEDD board could borrow money through and bond and they could tax the workers of the JEDD district the amount of taxes for the municipality (no more). I believe they could also do a TIF (Tax Incremental Financing) to build the infrastructure, but I believe they would be limited to with in the JEDD district.
CEDA (Cooperative Economic Development agreement)
This is much more like a pre-annexation agreement with the City and the Township. Clearly for this agreement to work the property must be adjacent to the Municipality. This reserves the Township ?“CEDA?” land for the Municipality that went into the agreement. The Township can use the zoning and the Home Rule powers of the Municipality in the district to enforce zoning and where possible and where the City annexes then the Township can share in the Municipalities incomes taxes if agreed to prior to the annexation. This then through an agreement allows the Township to collect income taxes and still have some control over the property within their borders.
About 5 years ago Canal Winchester entered into a CEDA agreement with Violet Township but I can?’t say how that is working out. In those cases where it might make sense to annex this might be a solution. For what ever reason the City of Pickerington didn?’t get invited or declined to be involved with the current CEDA with Canal and Violet. Before you all jump on that I have heard both sides of the argument and some say they didn?’t allow Pickerington and others say they invited Pickerington but the City declined the invitation.
I believe those agreements go on for like 30 or 50 years. Once they expire then everything annexed stays in the City.
By Dan
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Nearing the end of Merger
Then there are the TIFs. I suspect that before all is said and done the Big Box developer will need a TIF to generate enough revenues to deliver on his promises of infrastructure. I believe the only way he can do that is with a JEDD and or an annexation. I know they are claiming no one complained about the Kroger store and the infrastructure but I do not think at the time the Kroger store and its parking lot had the impact on Refugee and Pickerington Roads as this proposed project will have. They added a couple of turn lanes and I think they will be fine as long as no additional land is developed east of there. That includes residential. Here again I am not sure and I hope someone has the answer can the TIF be used outside of the JEDD agreement. I hope someone could answer that. With less than a $1 Million in total real estate taxes projected for this project, I doubt they could afford much in a short period of time for infrastructure needs outside the JEDD area.
Then there is the Merger Commission like Yosemite Pam suggests. Just as a general statement I think most of the city residents seem to see the benefits of an arrangement like this. The city residents already pay a higher tax than those in the township. Most of that increased amount comes from the Police operating levy and the City income taxes. Most in the Township say they don?’t want to pay the increased taxes and that their police protection is equal to or better than the city?’s. They also claim that their roads are plowed in the winter and better than the City?’s and they complained about the city?’s development policies. I think the biggest hurdle anyone is going to have by trying to promote a merger between the city and the township is that increase in taxes with the promise of euphoria in the land of enchantment for the future. Then there are the lingering feelings about the former city administrations and how they screwed the township at every turn. Let?’s face it folks the large land owners are out there promoting those fears so they can cash in on their large tracts of land and preserve their wealth for their families.
Cleary Harry and Terry have a vested interests in keeping and stroking the fires of controversy and keeping the Township intact. The very first argument they will look at is Pataskala. Yes they (Pataskala) got on the band wagon to merge because they saw Reynoldsburg advancing their way. However to appease the Township part they didn?’t provide any tax authority to this new city. Thus they then ended up with a very understaffed Police department and other services as well.
If any of you have had the occasion to drive through Pataskala it is out of control with uncontrolled growth. A big part of that being out of control and the uncontrolled growth can be tracked right back to the merger and not providing adequate funding to have a staff capable of handling and planning for this future euphoria. So unless the citizens that currently live in the township are willing to endure an income tax and hire the needed expertise then this effort will surly fail.
By Dan
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