05-19-16 Utilities - Laserfiche WebLink

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another municipality. That may need some revisions. On the compact issues, we are not asking not to pay a rate but by making only projects outside the City limits pay a compact fee that presents a tremendous burden on projects outside of the City. To have that fee burden the County presents a big barrier to development. To be clear, these very large one hundred and fifty (15 0) acre lots do not exist in South Bend City limits. There are some very good logical and effective waivers in the proposed bill. But there are also concerns as well but if the County builds these sewer lines that will then be part of the City's network the County should also have some type of entity that can enter into a development agreement to waive these fees. In the spirit of regionalism, the County should be a part of a larger conversation so we can sit down and talk about how these fees effect development. It really should be a conversation of how we all fit together in the County as a larger economic area. At the end of the day if a project lands in South Bend, that is still a win for the County because it's in the County. If a project lands in New Carlisle it will still be a win for South Bend because chances are somebody at that project lives in South Bend. Chairperson Dr. Varner stated this comes back to his question of who will pay these assessments since there are so many exemptions granted going forward. That is certainly something we ought to discuss. Committeemember Dr. Fred Ferlic asked how would the County like to go forward because it seems there are some standing issues. Mr. Schalliol responded he would like to see the County work with Mr. Horvath's team and maybe bring Mishawaka authorities as well to the table. We can work very quickly so this gets adopted and into effect but there does need to be some collaboration on some of these issues. Jerrod Huss, consultant for the town of New Carlisle and the St. Joseph Energy Center, stated the energy center has a concern for the assessment fees even though there is a provision that the Board of Public Works can wave the fees. A bigger issue to is the July 1St date because the permit has not been issued yet. Phase two (2) of the project will come on later than July 1St and they would be relying on the exemption waiver. They put together a good portion of the money to build these utility lines. As for New Carlisle, part of the concern from the town's perspective is they no longer have a contract as of 2009 related to their sanitary rates. Obviously they are exempt from the assessment portion but they are less clear on the retroactive compact fees of the town. That really wouldn't be fair since they are on a line that was paid for by TIF District dollars originally from the County. They are the only large scale users that do not have a contract with the City and that's a concern in the long run of these rates. Mr. Horvath responded on a compact there would be no charge from 2009 to present for current users. Committeemember Dr. Fred Ferlic stated he thinks Community Investment and the Redevelopment Commission should be involved with this issue because this is a bigger conversation. It seems from South Bend's standpoint it would be wise for us to look at this at a County level and the bigger picture. 5