Parkway Place stalls with Blue Springs council vote

The Parkway Place project could be in jeopardy after one Blue Springs City Council member abstained from voting Monday night.

Council Member Ron Fowler voted to abstain from three critical proposals related to the project, one of which would have created a community improvement district, or CID, and another that would have permitted the construction of a convenience/spirits store.

The CID would have imposed a 30-year, 1 percent sales tax within the project’s boundaries. The CID would have been meant to pay for approximately $800,000 in traffic and infrastructure improvements.

“It probably hasn’t sunk in how to fix it,” Bill Wrisinger of Adams Dairy Investor’s Group LLC. “I’d say the project is stagnate at this point. It’s not scrapped, but the group is disappointed.”

To pass an ordinance, the City Council requires four votes out of six to pass. But if a measure ends in a 3-3 tie, the mayor can cast a tiebreaking vote. By abstaining from voting for or against the CID, as well as the request to rezone Parkway West, Fowler effectively kept Mayor Carson Ross from breaking what would have been a tie vote.

Fowler said after the meeting he abstained because he didn’t feel like he was given all the necessary information about the project from both the developer and city staff.

“Some of the information about the project was not given to me,” Fowler said. “That’s partly why I abstained. That and I would have preferred to have the entire project, all of the components, presented at one time.”

Fowler said during and after the meeting that developers originally said the $18.4 million project located at Adams Dairy Landing and R.D. Mize Road, described as a mixture of retail buildings, a convenience store and restaurants, would not require any tax incentives.

But developers said the CID is necessary because it would lift some of the financial burden off them.

The developer also agreed to reduce the amount of the sales tax from 1 percent to one-fourth percent once the reimbursable money is paid off.

David Zeiler, speaking for the developer, said they expected to be reimbursed in about 13 years.

But the convenience store/liquor and spirits store, adjacent to Parkway Place, would have served as a significant revenue stream to satisfy the CID and reduce the sales tax amount more quickly.

Developers admitted they weren’t sure how Monday night’s votes would affect the overall project.

Joe Lauber, an attorney representing Williams and Campo, said the project would be impossible to realize without the CID and its convenience store component.

“This is a multi-million dollar development that will bring jobs and development to an area that needs it,” Lauber said.

Greg Grounds, an attorney representing the developers, said it was his understanding early on that “no TIF, or tax incentive,” would be used for the project, but that he understood a TDD, or transportation developement district, was possible.

 He said his and Fowler’s definition of tax incentive differed.

“I would never call a CID or TDD a public-enforced tax,” Grounds said.

Wrisinger said after the meeting that Adams Dairy Investors LLC wanted to go with the CID and not with a TDD because RED Development, responsible for the Adams Dairy Landing project, was using that as a means to fund improvement and infrastructure.

“We backed off of RED and did our own thing,” he said.

While both a CID and TDD are similar – they both add a small, local sales tax to pay for infrastructure improvements to a defined area – the community district requires council approval and oversight, while a transportation district does not. A community improvement district also allows more flexibility in what the money can be used for.

Council Member Sheila Solon agreed with Fowler’s thoughts, agreeing at one point that the CID money would eventually be used for on-site litter removal, public relations efforts, general maintenance, snow removal and fountain maintenance.

She firmly questioned when would it stop and, ultimately, why customers should be responsible for such things.

Council member Lyle Shaver called the CID attempt “stealth taxes” and that people unknowingly support it because it’s not required that developers post it on-site.

“This form of sales tax is not a benefit,” Shaver said. “TIFs should be used for bringing things to the city that we don’t have.”

Council members Jeanie Lauer, Kent Edmondson and Sissy Reed voted for the two rezoning attemps and CID proposal. Had Fowler voted against the three proposals, each would have been a tie vote, with Ross able to break the tie.

While he did not comment on the CID specifically, Ross said he agreed with the convenience store/spirits store.