Commissioners: “We don’t care what you say, really.”
After shooting down calls to augment their membership because it would “expand government,” the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners last week voted to create two metropolitan districts, despite preexisting policy and the best advice of their staff.
From the Golden Transcript:
Jefferson County commissioners overruled a prerecession policy last week in support of the developers of the former Green Gables country club.
The unanimous decision during last week’s regular meeting of the Board of County Commissioners granted the developers permission to form two Green Games Metropolitan Districts. Once formed, the districts will take out mill-levy bonds, raising the millions of dollars needed to construct the necessary infrastructure for planned developments, including roads, sidewalks, water lines, storm water drainage, common areas and parkland.
“The total cost for improvements for both districts is a little more than $37 million,” county planner Alan Tiefenbach told the commissioners.
Tiefenbach said that county staff had recommended denial of Metro District One, which would include most of the residential space, because of a policy a former Board of County Commissioners had set.
Policy Part 7, Chapter 2, Section 5.A.6 states that “the use of special districts solely as a financing mechanism,” for making necessary development improvements is to be discouraged by the county.
The county’s current supervisor of planning, Mike Schuster, said by phone that his understanding was that the policy was written before 2008 in response to complaints from some residents that their property-tax burden was made significantly greater than their neighbors by developers using special-district taxes, instead of their own pockets to pay for upfront infrastructure costs.
At the hearing, Tiefenbach said developers historically pass along those costs through increased lot-sale prices. However, when property taxes are used to cover infrastructure costs, he said, there is no compelling reason the developers could not still sell the lots for a slightly higher price.
“In this case it could be considered double dipping,” Tiefenbach said.
During last week’s meeting, though, both the applicant, and board of commissioners Chairman Donald Rosier said the practice of using metropolitan districts to help fund up-front development costs has become increasingly common and necessary in recent years.
“I have formed many metro districts, and I know that without those districts, those communities would not exist nowadays,” Rosier said.
This is yet another example of the Board kowtowing to the whims of developers without first considering the needs of the communities involved. As the county supervisor of planning — inarguably the person who best understands the implications of development — mentions, county residents are adversely affected when special districts are created exclusively for financing purposes.
If you follow the Board’s logic, then, it’s a bad “expansion of government” when there are more elected officials around to respond to constituent needs and a good “expansion of government” when taxpayers foot the bill for private development. In other words, government expansion is something to be afraid of when it means more accountability, and something to cherish when it means higher property taxes. It almost makes sense! What’s the best way to combat the big, bad-government? More powerful private entities, of course!
Beyond the larger implications of this decision, it’s absurd that the commissioners are so willing to ignore the advice of their staff. The Board was given the professional opinion of two county planners, educated experts in local government zoning and taxation, on the topic of zoning and taxation. That opinion, however, ran counter to what the commissioners intended to do all along and was summarily swept under the rug.
What’s the point of asking for professional advice if you’re just going to ignore it? Furthermore, why even have a staff of experts educated in various disciplines of local government if their input doesn’t influence your decision?
Hell, maybe the commissioners’ end game is to shrink county government after all. Shrink it, that is, down to just three members.
In the echo chamber that is the Board of County Commissioners, only three voices really matter in the end.
