Of course, Council Anderson reminds Huwe that there was a ‘soft’ agreement (Item C – PDF DOC: platting). I also remember a city funded website that Munson had put up to sell the public on the idea. The Developers promised they would put in 50%, and when that didn’t happen, they blamed the economy (Taxpayers have put in about 5x more then developers, not quite a 50/50 split.
The reality of all this is that the city will NEVER get 50% from the developers. Why? As I was reminded yesterday,
1) Sanford and Avera are paying NO platting fees on redevelopment, and they are some of the biggest developers in SF, who also got to attend the arterial street meetings. So I guess they get to have a say, but don’t have to pay for it. Hmm.
2) We hand out more property tax breaks (TIF’s) to developers then what we collect on platting.
As I told someone yesterday, not only are the developers running this town, they are robbing the taxpayers blind (TIF’s, arterial roads, Greenway landscaping for private hotel) and Mayor Huether and Darrin Smith are driving the getaway car. But hey, we better cut funding to Paratransit.
Worse, city contracts are non-competitive bid with the overpriced 25% kickbacks to Huether & developers. Not enough, they need another 10% TIF. Huether is known for 35% credit cards. When citizens discover this is not interest but public funds fraud, TIF acronym will be answered with FBI.
It was set up to be a 60/40 split not 50/50.
Either way, the developers have avoided paying what they agreed to…..