By Michael Howell
The County Commissioners met last Thursday, November 19, for “Review and approval of a Comprehensive Development Plan for the Targeted Economic Development District (TEDD) in Airport Area and Preliminary Engineering Report (PER).” Commissioners Greg Chilcott and J.R. Iman were absent and the remaining commissioners quickly decided not to deal with the PER since Chairman Jeff Burrows and Commissioner Ray Hawk both stated they had not had time to review the document.
According to Julie Foster, Executive Director of the Ravalli County Economic Development Authority, it was incumbent upon the Commissioners to adopt the Comprehensive Development Plan for the TEDD to meet the timelines involved in the process but the PER could be delayed. She said that most TEDDs do not come forward with a PER. She said the PER is usually developed after the TEDD is adopted.
“We have gone a step above in producing one prior to adoption of the TEDD,” she said. “We are hoping you will adopt it.” She said the PER in this case was used to make a preliminary determination about the feasibility of pursuing a TEDD.
Planning Department Director Terry Nelson explained that the plan involves two areas, one is the county-owned land including the airport and it is governed under existing regulations meeting federal requirements of the FAA. He said the other private properties within the TEDD will be zoned Light Industrial. He said the Comprehensive Development Plan being adopted mirrors the Comprehensive Development Plan already adopted for the Voluntary Zoning District that has already been approved. He said although the county doesn’t pay taxes on its property, any new lease revenue for new enterprises at the airport would go into the tax increment fund in the TEDD.
Members of the public complained about ambiguities and misleading statements in the document making it unclear that the “comprehensive” plan being referred to was only within the District and not outside it. They said it was also unclear what it had to do with the Airport Area, referred to in the agenda and in several parts of the planning document. The commissioners agreed to remove all language referring to the “Airport Area” out of the document so that it would not be confused with the airport improvement project and the related EA that is being conducted for that project.
Bitterrooters for Planning criticized the development plan, characterizing it as nothing more than a laundry list of potential light industrial developments that could occur, none of which is specifically being planned for. They were also critical of the references to positive economic impacts outside the district and noted that no consideration was given to any potential negative impacts outside the district, such as smoke from the biomass production of energy, or pollution of the groundwater from other developments. It was noted that Planning Director Terry Nelson was quoted in the daily newspaper saying that the county needed a Growth Policy and Comprehensive Planning.
Nelson denied that he said any such thing and claimed the newspaper misquoted him.
Questions were also raised about including the Airport Influence Area at the end of the runway in the light industrial zone. A statement that the Airport Influence Zone was being amended was removed from the document since it is not in the process of being amended. Foster said the area could be still used by the district for something such as a well or a lagoon. The Development Plan does include the possibility of the district pursuing construction of its own wastewater treatment facility if hooking up to the Hamilton municipal sewer proves not to be a viable option. The County is still in discussions with the City over use of the municipal system. The City’s regulations would require that the property be annexed into the City if it is using the municipal water and sewer system. The County is hoping they will consider other options such as payments to cover any increased cost incurred by the City.
In response to concerns about any bond or loan that might be taken out and then defaulted on, Foster said that the tax increment financing was a regular financing tool generally used to pay for expensive infrastructure and that the bonding requirements had safeguards imbedded in them. She said the tax increment was required to be two times the amount of the payments and a reserve account that could cover one year of payments was also required.
The Comprehensive Development Plan for the TEDD was adopted on a 3 to 0 vote. Discussion of the PER was delayed.
On Monday, November 23, the County Commissioners approved the TEDD on second reading and the ordinance will go into effect 30 days from the date of approval.