[CPEO-BIF] local vs. state BF subsidies

["Robert Hersh" <b_hersh@verizon.net>]

The Plain Dealer
Sunday, February 11, 2007

The price of good will

Surprise tax abatement for Steelyard Commons cleanup offers the chance for
acts of good corporate citizenship

There's always been a lot to like about the Steelyard Commons retail
complex: Its intriguing re-use of old industrial land. The promise of some
badly needed, suburban-style shopping in Cleveland. And maybe most of all,
the insistence of developer Mitchell Schneider that he could, and would, do
the project without local incentives.

Schneider, mindful of the hullabaloo that once surrounded the plan, has
tried to be a good corporate citizen. He's building the portion of the
Towpath Trail that runs through Steelyard Commons. He's preserving artifacts
of the property's steel-making days. He has worked with neighbors to ease
concerns about traffic, aesthetics and the impact on their business
districts. He enthusiastically embraced an idea to help underwrite other
parts of the Towpath Trail and to aid small retailers by tapping the
non-schools portion of the extra property taxes that Steelyard Commons will
generate.

Only now a cloud hangs over that last promise. Schneider and some of the
major retailers who bought parcels within Steelyard Commons took part in an
Ohio program that encourages developers to clean up brownfields on their own
dime in return for certification that bars the state or anyone else from
ever bringing an environmental lawsuit against them. Without such liability
protection, many reclamation projects would never get financed.

But the Covenant Not to Sue brings another perk: a 10-year exemption from
all property taxes on the increased value of the cleaned-up land. At the
moment, it's a mandatory exemption that involves no local government
approval and supersedes any tax arrangements a developer might prefer.
Schneider, who has done no other brownfields projects, says he had no idea
that provision existed. When his lawyers told him, he quickly informed City
Hall and is looking for a remedy that gets money flowing to the schools and
the other projects that were to benefit.

For the entire articles, see:
<<http://www.cleveland.com/politics/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1171
10243640280.xml&coll=2>>


Bob Hersh
CPEO




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