Commissioners change zoning for resort community
The Fayette County commissioners paved the way for a proposed $400 million resort-style community in Springhill Township in a split vote Thursday, one that left Commissioner Sean M. Cavanagh proposing a one-year tax exemption for all new residential housing construction in the county. Cavanagh and Commissioner Ronald M. Nehls voted to change the zoning so that Crystal Springs Properties Inc. can embark on a mega-development built around two 18-hole golf courses on 853 acres of mostly strip-mined land.
While Cavanagh and Nehls hailed the project as a worthy economic development venture – Cavanagh called it a “great plan” that deserved a chance to succeed – Commission Chairman Vincent A. Vicites objected on philosophical grounds.
Vicites said that since residential housing is one component of the plan, he couldn’t support the rezoning because of fairness issues, as the tax-free Keystone Opportunity Zone status already conferred on the land waives real estate and other taxes through 2014. “I just can’t vote for this. My convictions are strong on this,” said Vicites. He added that Fay-Penn Economic Development Council, which owns the property, promoted the KOZ only for industrial development when selling the concept to taxing bodies several years ago.
However, Cavanagh said the commissioners, including Vicites, have supported every single LERTA tax abatement request program that came before them in the past 7.5 years. Cavanagh said it’s a “paradox” that Vicites would espouse such great concern for tax fairness, when he routinely has joined the other commissioners in offering businesses a five-year real estate tax break under LERTA.
“You’re willing to give LERTA to businesses. How’s that fair and equal?” asked Cavanagh. He added that if fairness were such a big concern, he was willing to vote on the spot for a one-year residential LERTA tax break on all new residential construction in the county.
Such a move, said Cavanagh, would offer a break to the “little guy” and mirror what’s already being done for residential construction in Greene County. But he quickly and correctly predicted, “I know it won’t happen,” because the other Fayette commissioners wouldn’t support such a move.
“I think you should have a LERTA for residential (construction) in Fayette County. But again, I have never gotten a second (vote) for that,” said Cavanagh.
Nehls said the only issue before the commissioners was the merits of the rezoning, not the tax implications caused by the KOZ status. Beyond that, Nehls said that the Crystal Springs project represented a huge potential investment opportunity that shouldn’t be stymied.
“Other than the reassessment issue, this is the biggest no-brainer since I’ve been in office,” said Nehls.
Vicites, however, said that even the Springhill Township supervisors opposed the rezoning on fairness grounds. He said the situation was analogous to recent developments in South Union Township, where the supervisors did not support the rezoning of industrial-zoned KOZ land for commercial business use until the tax-free status was removed.
“I’m going to vote no on this,” said Vicites, who added that the county’s land-use plan designates the area of the proposed Springhill Township development as conservation and land reclamation.
Cavanagh said that putting what amounts to waste land to some productive use represents the highest form of economic development and that it would be folly to throw up a road block to that effort.
“They want to take messed-up land and reclaim it,” said Cavanagh. “Really, nothing else is happening in this (geographic) area. I’m for progress. I’m for moving the county forward. They’ve got a great plan.”
For emphasis of his own convictions, Cavanagh told backers of the Crystal Springs project who were in the audience, “I hope you guys show him (Vicites) what economic development is all about.”
Vicites said he fails to comprehend how building $300,000 homes in a tax-free zone, as proposed by the developers, helps the so-called little guy, as portrayed by Cavanagh.
Cavanagh said that when the property was put into the KOZ, Fay-Penn had it lined up for a potential distribution center, but that project got away. He said part of the difficulty in making productive use of the land arises from the fact that it has been heavily strip mined and undermined.
Tammy Shell, director of the county’s zoning office, said the rezoning approved Thursday affects 723 acres that will move from light industrial to agricultural/rural. Shell said those acres will join 130 non-rezoned acres in the 853-acre parcel as having the county’s first-ever “community development project” land-use designation.