By A.K. Dugan, Lebanon Express writer | Posted: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 12:00 am
The Lebanon City Council approved the North Gateway Urban Renewal District (URD) on Sept. 10 with little discussion and comments only from Lebanon Fire District (LFD) board members.
"We in no way oppose this URD," said LFD board representative K.C. Pyle, "but the extent and impact of the URD causes concern."
The new URD is a means of financing public infrastructure improvements in the area of the proposed Samaritan Health Medical Campus and south to include Academy Square. URDs are taxing districts that receive tax revenue based on increases in assessed value after the district is created. The estimated revenue of the district is about $15.7 million over its expected 23-year lifetime.
As originally drafted, the district would have included the industrial area east of the hospital but was pared down to 144 acres west of Highway 20. It includes all of the property designated for the medical campus, Academy Square and the residential area in between as well as a few lots north of Reeves Parkway.
City administrator John Hitt said it was pared down in part because of public input, especially from fire department officials at a hearing before the Planning Commission.
"They wanted as few projects and as small a footprint as possible," he said.
Additionally, city officials aren't aware of any development planned in the area dropped from the plan, at least in the near term, and decided it was questionable whether the area would generate enough revenue to pay for projects.
These projects are named in the URD plan:
€ The street and utility network for the medical campus.
€ Improvements to North Fifth Street from Mary Street to Reeves Parkway, and to Tangent, Second and Morton streets.
€ A pedestrian path between Academy Square and the medical campus.
€ Traffic signals on Highway 20 at Reeves Parkway and Twin Oaks Drive and a pedestrian crossing across Highway 20 between the hospital and medical campus.
€ Substantial repairs to the city-owned railroad track along Olive Street.
€ New waterlines on portions of Mary, Second and North Main streets.
€ A $225,000 contribution to the design and construction of a skateboard park at Fourth and Harrison streets.
€ Improvements to the Senior Center.
€ Purchase of additional land as needed for the growth of the medical campus.
€ Financial assistance to Linn-Benton Community College for a Mechatronics Training Facility.
Much of the territory in the new URD was taken from the existing Northwest Lebanon URD.
The fire district's concern involves the way URDs are financed, which involves transferring some tax revenue from existing entities - city, county, Linn-Benton Community College and the fire and aquatic districts - to the URD. The existing entities continue to receive taxes on the assessed value of property in the district at the time the URD is formed. Taxes from assessment increases go to the URD. When the URD is dissolved, all tax revenue from the area again goes to the various local governments.
The increase in assessed value comes from private investments within the URD. Private investment in this case is expected to be high, said URD consultant Jeff Tashman.
Tashman calculated that the existing entities together would lose $8.2 million through 2033, but by 2041/42 would regain all the lost revenue. The city would take the biggest hit, losing nearly six percent - $4.5 million - over the life of the URD but in the next 10 years would take in $5 million. The fire district would lose nearly $2 million from 2008 to 2023 and would receive $2.2 million from 2034 to 2043.
Hitt acknowledged URDs cause the city, fire district and other entities to provide services to new development without receiving additional tax revenues for a number of years. In his opinion, Hitt said, the overall longterm benefit to the community of new jobs and more visitors coming to town outweighs the shortterm sacrifice in tax revenues.
In his statement on behalf of the LFD board, Pyle said the new development in the URD will require additional fire personnel and equipment during the period in which the fire district's tax revenue is based on frozen assessed valuation.
The fire board presented options for projects to be funded by the URD and was not satisfied with the responses it got.
"We will pass a resolution of support if we get answers to our questions," Pyle said.
The LFD board would like to be involved in planning for URDs, if not this one, any that might be created in the future.
"We're not trying to derail plans. We just ask to be included as participants," he said.
"We want dialogue about how the city and fire department can work together to provide necessary services to the citizens of Lebanon," added LFD board chair Sue Davis a few minutes later. As an example, she said they need to talk about whether the hotel proposed for the medical campus area would be too tall for the fire district's ladder truck.
When Davis criticized the city for not addressing the fire district's questions and suggested list of projects, City Administrator John Hitt said the URD won't generate enough income even for some of the projects the city wanted to do. He suggested that some projects might be added or changed in the future if the URD brings in more revenue that expected.
The vote by the council was 5-1, with councilor Ray Weldon voting no because he wanted it to be referred to voters.
"There's a lot of things in here I don't understand," he said. "All the people I've talked to are against this."
"I think we were elected to make this kind of decision," councilor Bob Elliott responded.