Parberry Family enters into Agreement with the City

Additional public funds nearing $4.5 million (2007 dollars) will be directed into parts of Old Town for several street and plaza upgrades. Continuing a decades long process to redirect development in Old Town, this funding seems necessary but it does bring the public portion of Old Town reinvestment upwards of $12 million, not including incidental City commitments, and growing.

It seems our City staff are working diligently to meet infill mandates and, to that end, believe that this is money well spent. I would likely agree but I personally would like to see the public recover as much of our expenditures as possible.

For example, we continue seeing impact fees waived while over the past several years City Councilors and City staff have repeatedly supported the intention to pay for Old Town improvements with impact fees - such as park impact fees directed straight to Old Town projects.

As of now, however, it is looking more and more like the City is vesting the majority of Old Town properties with 10 years of freedom from many of the impact fees we've been counting on for other Old Town improvements.

These waivers do not mean the public is left without the agreed upon amenities, it simply means that more recent decisions were made to spread these costs to the taxpayers in general. Is that fair? Is it an appropriate mechanism to spur redevelopment in our own local version of Skid Row?

Let City staff and Council know your thoughts at the next public hearing on Old Town:

Draft Resolution 018137 - Development Agreement between Parberry's Inc and COB.

City Council will hold a Public Hearing on Sep 29.