Aug 23, 2006 3 min read

The taxpayers of Fayette County should be very concerned with the new housing development proposed in Springhill Township in the tax-free Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ). A Pittsburgh development firm, Crystal Springs Investors, is requesting a zoning change to accommodate their plan for 500 housing units located on Gans-Woodbridge Road. This will be the fourth zoning change since Fay-Penn leased the property as a KOZ. This sale will have long-term effects on the county, the environment and taxpayers. Is there an established, proven plan to handle this new sizable community without increasing property and school taxes?

The development company will save hundreds of thousands of dollars developing this property in a KOZ. The owners of the projected $135,000 average cost home will save $10,000 to $20,000 in property tax alone, while the remainder of Fayette County homeowners, taxpayers and senior citizens continue to pay the taxes levied on us.

Fayette County homeowners will have a difficult time selling a home at a fair market value, with the unfair competition the tax free zone creates. Will houses be under-sold to compete with the KOZ? Living in a KOZ not only excludes a person from property taxes, but also state and local (income) withholding tax, both of which help fund infrastructure.

There are towns in Fayette County that need revitalized. The report from the Pa. 21 Century Environment Commission agrees: “Pennsylvania should revitalize our existing communities. By making our urban areas and small towns more attractive places to live, we can slow down the rush to new housing developments in the suburbs and rural areas and assure continued use of infrastructure already in place. The challenge is to make our urban municipalities and core communities competitive with suburban and rural areas.”

Couldn’t Fayette County be a leader in this kind of initiative instead of jumping on the development wagon? These established communities have water, sewage, road structure, banks, shops, and all of them have always and will continue to contribute to the tax base. Instead of creating another community with potentially 1,500 people, why not try to revitalize the existing communities?

If Fayette County needs housing, why not create incentives for prospective homeowners to move to our towns and revive, build and remodel our existing communities? Make our existing communities the bustling centers they used to be. Fayette County towns, villages, and boroughs have a potential, a uniqueness, that needs only help, guidance, and incentives in developing and attracting this new influx of homeowners that are projected to arrive.

Sprawl is expensive. According to the environmental commission, “By ignoring what is happening around us, we damage ourselves and those who come after us in the 21 century, by loss of open space, natural environment, loss of farmland (in 10 years Pennsylvania lost over 1 million acres) loss of habitat, loss of aquifers, and air pollution. There is only so much land, we can’t produce more, but we consume land as though it’s an endless resource.”

I am concerned that this project is more about profit and loss, and less about what is best for the existing communities and the tax-paying citizens who choose to make Fayette County their home. Fay-Penn’s lease on 200 acres of this proposed project expires in December 2006.

Any concerned citizens in Fayette County and residents in the Albert Gallatin Area School District, should attend the public hearing being held Aug. 24 at 1:45 p.m. in the meeting room of the Public Service Building, 22 E. Main St., Uniontown, to hear the petition of Crystal Springs Investors.

Paul M. Dunham

Gans