September 2017

UPTOWN Timeline

l3wis September 20, 2017 1Comments

This was the presentation I gave last night to the city council meeting during public input about UPTOWN II TIF application.

I said I was NOT doing the presentation for council but for the public, since their minds are usually made up before the meeting even starts.

Phillips to the Falls – UPTOWN Timeline

2004-5 Completion of Phillips to the Falls

8/14/2006 – Uptown Presentation to the city council, 3-Phases, $2.582 million dollar purchase price for 3 parcels, promise to be finished by 2014-2015, Over $100 Million valuation, $4-5 million in property taxes a year. When Craig Lloyd from the Lloyd companies was asked when him and his partners anticipated purchasing the property by councilor Kermit Staggers, Lloyd responded, “Soon as you can give me title.” Purchase price at that time was $2,582,000 for all of the parcels. Development agreement was supposed to finalized in September 2006 according to city planner Erica Beck.

4/2/2007 – (Land still NOT purchased) City Council awards TIF #8 for first phase of Uptown. Before approval city councilor Pat Costello asks why a ‘Needs’ analysis was NOT done for TIF and It concerned him going forward on future TIFS. Planning Department said they followed state statutes which did not require the analysis.

7/16/2007 – City Council approves purchase of land, Split into TWO payments. Lloyd promises to break ground in March of 2008 (They did not).

12/6/2010 – Land still not purchased. During a city council informational Council Chair Greg Jamison asks about (purchase/TIF) deadlines for the Uptown project. City Planner Erica Beck (at the time, now is the project manager for Uptown II for Lloyd companies) said they were working with the city attorney’s office to amend the agreements, they want to give the Lloyd companies until the end of 2011 to move forward with project since they have invested so much of their own capital so far (Yet the taxpayers of SF are still holding on to the land and receiving NO tax revenue).

12/11/2012 – Utility Easement finally released for Uptown Phase I – Purchase finalized for Uptown Phase I first parcel shortly after that for $1.1 million (Which should have left a balance of $1.5 million without inflation on remainder of property – (See original valuation chart above from first meeting/presentation in 2006).

It took Lloyd Companies over 6 years to purchase HALF of the parcels AND another 5 years to purchase remainder. Taxpayers held the land for a private developer for 11 years. This is unheard of in the private sector without a significant down payment. Why didn’t we open this land for sale to others instead of holding property for Lloyd? Why didn’t we clean up the land ourselves with the assistance of EPA Federal Grants (Remember we just got $27 million for the railyard).

The TIF passed 6-2 (Starr and Stehly voted NO saying it was NOT a good use of a TIF).

Myself and another citizen also pointed out that several of the councilors voting last night received campaign donations from Craig Lloyd. Erpenbach, Rolfing, Kiley, Selberg and Erickson and should not be voting on the TIF. It was also pointed out that Selberg works as an independent broker for Lloyd and should definitely be excusing himself from the vote, he did not.

If you watch the above meetings and how this played out over the last 11 years, you will see a lot of secrecy, conflicts of interest and insider baseball being played. Even if the TIF was a good idea for this project, how they got to the end game certainly was questionable.