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COLUMBIANA -- Future Commercial Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) agreements in the city that require school board approval will not get approved until an agreement is reached between the city and school district.
School board members Scott Caron and Kelly Williamson approached city council again on Jan. 16 to discuss the city's CRA program.
In an ongoing discussion between the city and school district, Caron reiterated that the school board as a whole is continuing to take the stance that it will not sign off on any future commercial and industrial CRA agreements until changes are made to the residential CRA program.
Caron said the district would be satisfied with a hold harmless agreement, although two other options are available that would also satisfy their concerns.
Specifically, the school district says the CRA program, which offers 15 year, 100 percent property tax abatements on new home construction projects, is costing the district money since the district has to educate additional students living in the CRA areas, but not receiving the property tax revenues from those particular housing projects.
The CRA is a state-sanctioned program that was implemented by the city in 2019 as an economic development tool.
City officials have said the CRA has attracted many new residents and businesses to the area over the last several years.
By state law, the school district must approve any commercial/industrial CRA agreements that are above the 75 percent threshold.
"The school board is unwilling to move forward with anything until we have something that we are moving forward with in place with the current CRA for the housing," Caron told council.
"It is not the school board's position to harm any type of business or stop any business, but we also understand that we need to do something with the CRA because of the fact that we feel it is costing the district, as what was presented in the school board meeting," Caron added, referring to the Jan. 9 board of education meeting in which District Superintendent Dr. Don Mook outlined in detail how the residential CRA was impacting the district.
Council member John Yenges and City Manager Lance Willard also attended the school board meeting to provide city representation.
Councilman Dan Dattilio said that it wasn't until after hearing or seeing the information presented by Mook during the board meeting that the city had a better idea of exactly how the district determined the CRA program was having a negative impact financially.
Caron explained that Mook's presentation was made to the board upon their request.
Caron also said to council that the school district has not been in favor of the residential property tax abatements offered through the program since its inception, and that the district has been vocal about that since the beginning.
As for the joint meeting to be overseen by a moderator that the city has proposed, Caron said that the school district was not pleased that the city was not allowing public comment.
He said that in the letter sent to the school district outlining the details of the proposed moderated meeting between the school district and city to discuss the matter, the city stated that public comments would not be taken in the first meeting and that only public comments made ahead of time in writing would be considered for future meetings.
"We want to recognize the fact that the public is going to be there, they should be able to comment on how they feel, for or against whatever position," Caron said.
Dattilio and others on council noted that the letter stated that it was only recommended no public comment be taken during the first meeting, mainly to save on time.
Dattilio said no restrictions would be made on public comments for any subsequent meetings.
However, the school district has yet to officially respond to the request for a moderated meeting, although Caron indicated the district was not opposed to having one.
In the meantime, the district's attorney is working with Municipal Attorney Mark Hutson on an agreement that would satisfy both parties.
Caron said he believed a hold harmless agreement would be the best route.
Other options are reducing the amount of time for residential property tax abatements, or the city reimbursing the school for amount of money lost per pupil.