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BY DAN TELVOCK
Spotsylvania County Attorney Jacob Stroman says the path the Board of Supervisors wants to take to pay for the Harrison Road Connector is fair to all property owners.
Stroman was responding to a letter sent last week by Gifford Hampshire, an attorney representing resident Susan Tait, who is suing the county over this road project.
The 1.5-mile road begins at the back of Spotsylvania Towne Centre off State Route 3 and ends on Harrison Road near Hazelwild Farm. The road is just west of Interstate 95.
The crux of the argument is whether it is fair to include residential properties in a proposed tax district to help pay for the road--if the residential property is rezoned to commercial or industrial.
Stroman says it is.
Hampshire says the county should exclude the residential properties because that is what was promised years ago when supervisors approved the mall rezoning.
The issue will take center stage on Aug. 11, when supervisors hold a public hearing on whether to scrap the Community Development Authority for a Special Service District as the funding mechanism for the connector road.
Hampshire says state law allows properties to be excluded from the service district to ensure that only commercial property will pay the extra real estate tax within the district's boundaries.
Supervisors have said that only commercial property in the service district will pay for the road unless residential property is rezoned to commercial. However, the ordinance says the terms of the ordinance can be changed from "time to time." That instills fear in residents who own land in the district that they could eventually be forced to help pay for the road.
Some residents who attended a July 21 Waverly Village Homeowners Association meeting accused supervisors of trying to pull a bait and switch, saying the service district doesn't provide much protection for residents.
"Before the board passes any substitute funding vehicle, it should ensure that those commercial properties are, in and of themselves, sufficient to repay the bond debt such that there is no need to hold out the option for residential properties to be included at a later time," Hampshire said.
Stroman said one key difference is that the county would take over the project from the Cafaro Co., the mall's developer, which had promised to build the road in return for a rezoning in 2006.
The Cafaro Co. is now off the hook for building the road because a June deadline passed for supervisors to condemn land for the connector.
Stroman said that only if a property owner rezones his land to commercial or industrial would he have to pay the tax. With the CDA, the landowner would have had to pay back assessments from the time the funding mechanism started.
"A potential liability of a resident seeking a rezoning will be smaller under an SSD than CDA because the CDA had a rollback of assessments," he said. "I think all of those are very significant, and I would disagree with a statement that says this is basically the same thing."
Stroman said he agrees that state law allows the exclusion of properties from the service district. But he also said state law prohibits a county board from binding the hands of future boards.
"If there was a desire to exclude residential properties, there is nothing in the ordinance that would prevent a future board from terminating this and re-form it with different boundaries," he said. "As a matter of law, there is just no arguing about that.
"What the board has responded to is, the residential property owners wanted protection from either a CDA assessment or an SSD tax, and certainly under this ordinance they have that; as long as their property remains residential, then they won't be subject to the tax."
He also said that it was mistakenly stated at the Waverly Village meeting that Red Lobster and Jared-Galleria of Jewelry would be commercial properties within the boundaries excluded from paying the tax.
"Those who rezone and whose property benefits from those improvements that the SSD funds are going to be asked to help pay," he said. "The term is fairness, really."
Dan Telvock: 540/374-5438
Email: dtelvock@freelancestar.com
| Supervisors in 2006 approved a rezoning for Cafaro Co., which owns the Spotsylvania Towne Centre property. With that rezoning, Cafaro agreed to build the road and other improvements.
Also in 2006, supervisors passed a Community Development Authority ordinance that included the possibility of taxing residential property to pay for the road. In October, the attorney general issued an opinion saying that the ordinance does not legally exist because it contains a clause that allowed major landowners within the boundary to be excluded from paying any special assessment on the property. Instead of changing the CDA ordinance, supervisors decided to try a Special Service District, which is the subject of an Aug. 11 public hearing. Supervisors also let pass a June deadline to condemn property needed for the road, which means Cafaro Co. has no responsibility to build the road. But an executive with the company has threatened to sue if the county does not get the road built, said Supervisor Jerry Logan. |
