Columbia Township TIF districts, sewer plans met with opposition

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to clarify how additional infrastructure beyond sewers might be funded in the future. ELYRIA — Lorain County commissioners discussed a controversial plan Wednesday to create three tax increment financing districts in Columbia Township, with the intent of installing sewers in an area destined for new residential development. The three districts would encompass more than 800 acres from state Route 82 in the south north to Redfern Road, bordered on the eastern edge by the Strongsville city limits. A tax increment financing district, or TIF, exempts the value of private property improvements from property taxes — in this case, up to 75 percent for 10 years — to help fund public infrastructure improvements. Lorain County Community Development Director Don Romancak said the intent of the TIF is primarily to run sewers along Snell Road from Marks Road to Boone Road and to the Strongsville city limits to the east. That's just north of the former Emerald Woods Golf Course, which closed in 2017 after 52 years in business. After purchasing the property, MLM Development announced plans for 660 new residences, but has been met with opposition from residents and township officials worried about the fast-growing township becoming crowded. The company owns more than 52 acres of land it wants to develop on the north side of Snell Road. Commissioners approved borrowing $3.68 million for sewer improvements for the project in March 2019. TIF money would be used primarily to pay back those loans. Commissioner Lori Kokoski said the Columbia Schools would get 100 percent of the tax value of vacant land and 25 percent of the value of improved property over the life of the TIF. Commissioner Matt Lundy said putting infrastructure in the ground opens the door for more improvements, including to roads and bike trails. That would only be from further payments in lieu of taxes, or what is sometimes called PILOT money, that could be use to help build or improve that additional infrastructure, officials said. The TIF money is not designated specifically for those purposes. Lundy said the plan also helps prevent Strongsville from annexing portions of Lorain County. "We do believe annexation is a real threat," he said. "We're trying to secure our borders." The Columbia and Strongsville schools, Polaris Career Center in Cuyahoga County and Lorain County Joint Vocational School all will receive notice of the plans and have a chance to comment, officials said. But "the development goes on no matter what," Kokoski said. "Either you're going to have adequate sewer or inadequate sewer," Commissioner Sharon Sweda said. Columbia Township is one of the fastest-growing areas in Lorain County, and with that growth have come growing pains and community opposition to additional residential development. Columbia Township Trustee Mike Musto told commissioners he had not been given the straight story or details on how the TIF would work. "We don't know how much project is gonna cost, we don't know TIF district lines, where they're gonna be, we don't know anything," he said. "We've been asking for answers and not getting any." He said he has heard that a 10-year, 75 percent TIF would not be enough to build the sewers, and "now all of a sudden it will." He also said he fears the loss of tax revenue over those 10 years would hurt the school district and the township, which would lose 8 percent of its tax base for 10 years. County Administrator Jim Cordes said he and Romancak have worked out much of the plan and met with township officials, but felt "ambushed" by questions and second-guessing. He called Musto's statements "emphatically not true." The developers will pay for the use of the sewers, he said. Musto has "changed his mind, and when there was a court settlement requiring a density (of housing) he didn't like, he's personally set about trying to destroy the project," Cordes said. "The statements he's told residents have simply not been accurate. I don't think any information is going to suffice." The county waited until after Columbia Schools passed a levy to bring the TIF plan to the table, Cordes said, and Musto's argument is "just not an accurate depiction of what's going on." "Any information he wants that we have (he can have)," Cordes said. "We explained what the TIF can do, we were hoping to work collaboratively. It's like 'Groundhog Day' every time we go out to talk about this. We're going around the track endlessly, it's just not working." Lundy defended Cordes and Romancak and the work they have done over the past year and more. "It's not an easy project," he said. Columbia Township had been sued by MLM in Lorain County Common Pleas Court for trying to block development plans. The developers had sought a density of two units per acre but settled for 1.85. Had the township lost the lawsuit, it could have been forced to pay MLM between $2 million and $6 million in damages, which trustees said would have crippled the township financially. The township's insurance covered $80,000 in legal fees to fight the suit up to the point where an agreement was reached, officials said at the time. The township settled with the company in November 2018 at a contentious public meeting in the high school gymnasium that saw more than 200 residents show up. Most spoke out about increased development changing their rural way of life, increased traffic and potential overcrowding in the schools. Musto said no one has yet presented the full scope of the plan. "If you want to believe them (Cordes and Romancak) that's fine, but if you think that the township is not going to be hurt in any way by a TIF, you're not getting the true story," he said. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on Twitter.