01/10/1979 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ms. Benjamin noted for Council that during the original discussion of adoption of the SOT, no one had considered applying the tax to local government agencies. None of the local government agencies felt it would be applied to them. Manager noted he had had calls from public juris- dictions, and had responded that a public hearing would be held on the proposed ordinance at which time those officials could make their wishes known. . Vote was taken on the motion, which carried with Councilors Smith, Lieuallen, Schue, and Delay voting aye; Councilors Haws, Miller, and Obie voting no. Mr. Delay moved, seconded by Ms. Smith, to adopt the staff recommendation that City-supported developments receiving City financial support should be granted a reduction in the development tax. Manager said there had already been a couple of housing projects funded by City revenue sharing or grants. He noted the importance of retail expan- sion and hotel development in the downtown urban renewal area. He said the City would be providing parking and land which would provide a substan- tial "write-down" with the aid of federal money. These would be the .types of recommendations for exemption of the SOT, exempt up to the amount of the subsidy. He said the City would reduce the tax to the extent it felt the City would be subsidizing a development, which would be a measure of interest in the matter. He said it seemed impractical to subsidize a project, say for $5,000, and then have that much or more in Systems Development Tax. Mr. Obie preferred Council make the decision as to the extent the Systems Development Tax would be waived. Manager noted there would be relatively few of those instances. e Mr. Lieuallen felt it made sense to allow for possible exemptions up to the amount of the total subsidy. He felt the Council needed to establish that as a policy rather than waiting to consider on a case-by-case basis. He noted developers need to have information ahea~ of time in order to make their plans for development. He said it would be unfair to make developers wait on City Council decisions, as it would hold up their development plans. He suggested Council establish that policy through ordinance, and deal with other subsidies than the SOT Council might wish to grant at a later time. However, he said for the SOT, he felt the policy should be established by ordinance. Mayor Keller agreed. The Council had made a commitment to revitalize the downtown urban renewal area, and he felt it would be counter-productive to set another obstacle for developers and retail expansion in that area. Mr. Obie said perhaps it is time the City stop spending money trying to attract developers. He expressed concern about the definition of subsidy (based on what it cost the Renewal Agency or based on its value today) so staff would not get into arbitrary decisions. He wanted to keep the subjective decisions left for Council IS action. ~ 1/10/79--12 22