Monday Sept 26 Council considers spending $600,000 to acquire first 10 acres of the 150 acre Development Plan
Do you know if this makes good business sense?

This new "Heights" development plan will be located in the area pictured below.

Picture derived from Exhibit B of Council agenda item 6B pg 6

Quoting from the 

201/202 CORRIDOR DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT

Section 6.7            Public Information.  The Parties desire to maintain flexibility in planning and refining the Project and desire to limit public announcements relating to the Project.  The Parties will agree to the manner, timing and content of any public announcements, including descriptions of Project status. 

Section 5.2 Land Assembly Agreement.  As soon as is reasonably practicable following the execution of this Agreement, the Parties shall negotiate and enter into an agreement (the “Land Assembly Agreement”) that identifies the specific parcels to be included in the City Property and that details the obligations of the Parties with respect to the acquisition of the City Property and related matters.  ......... (h) determination of and terms for the sale of City Property to Developer when ready for development, including timing and price (which will include City’s cost of acquisition, plus all carrying costs), (i) allocation, payment and/or reimbursement of qualifying costs of pre-acquisition activities, and ........

Section 6.4   

(a) Updated Conceptual Development Plan.  The Initial Conceptual Development Plan, which shall have been updated to reflect the current status (both financial and construction) of the development of any prior Phases, the financial analysis of the proposed Phase, and any other modifications to reflect the anticipated conceptual development plan for the development of the remaining portions of the Property....... (iii) the estimated post-construction assessed valuation of the real property included in the proposed Phase and the estimated annual Montgomery County TIF Payments expected to be collected by City in respect of that Phase in the first calendar year following completion of construction of that Phase.  Developer shall be responsible for the preparation, and related cost of preparing, the Initial Conceptual Development Plan and any updates thereto.

(b) Infrastructure Analysis. .........City shall not be required to design, finance, construct or install any Infrastructure Improvements in accordance with this Agreement until City has approved the related Infrastructure Analysis (and all other related conditions set forth herein have been satisfied) which approval will not be unreasonably withheld, conditioned or delayed. Developer shall be responsible for the preparation, and related cost of preparing, the Infrastructure Analysis and any updates thereto.

(c) Project Budget and Project Schedule.  A Project Budget and Project Schedule, which Developer will develop, in consultation with City, and taking into account the results of the Infrastructure Analysis and the Available Financing Monies projected to be available to pay the costs of the Infrastructure Improvements required for that Phase, a proposed Project Budget and Project Schedule for the Phase of the Project. ..................City shall not be required to design, finance, construct or install any Infrastructure Improvements in accordance with this Agreement until City has approved the related Project Budget and Project Schedule

When the city prepared the Resolution Adopting A Tax Budget For The Year 2012 during the July 25th council meeting there was an attachment that included the city's outstanding bonds.  If you look at the outstanding bonds you see it includes at least 11 bond issues that by their title deal directly with Carriage Trails, Executive Boulevard, and Shull Road and these items already add up to more than half the outstanding bond debt of the city.

Click on image to see details. 

 

Ordinance

201/202 CORRIDOR DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT

Exhibit B

If you read the agenda item and the attachments you'll see they intend to buy about 15 acres but the $600,000 only gets them 10 acres and they still have to negotiate for the other 5 acres.  But the important items that council hasn't discussed in a public forum are the ones that would answer the questions above.  

The 201/202 Corridor Development Agreement does contain some clauses that could provide information to help answer the questions above.  But Section 6.7 of the same agreement tell us the public will have to pry it out of council if the public is interested.

What questions should council be able to answer?

According to Section 5.2 council should be able to answer many of the land acquisition questions.  How much do they intend to buy?  How much do they intend to keep?  How much are they planning to sell or give to the developer?   

According to Section 6.4  Council should be in possess of an Updated Conceptual plan that details the financing options available. 

According to Section 6.4 The developer should have already provided council a plan and cost for infrastructure requirements.  

Ask  your City Council to include the answers to these question when they discuss the land acquisition resolution Monday Night.

Council Member contact information 

Here are requests I think are relevant. 

Read my original Development Plan Post