Trustees approve TIF for redevelopment project

by Dan Holland

Aug. 8 township trustees regular meeting

Sagamore Hills Township trustees passed a resolution to enter into a 30-year tax increment financing agreement to purchase vacant buildings from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and make way for 140 senior living, ranch-style apartments to be built at state Route 82 and Carter Road. The development will feature private drives that will not require any maintenance by the township.

The township board of zoning appeals and zoning commission gave preliminary approval for a conditional-use permit for the apartments, which will be built on a commercially-zoned 30-acre parcel surrounding the existing Brentwood Health Care Center, located at 907 W. Aurora Rd.

Jeff Snell, attorney for the township, explained that the TIF – the first to be used in the township – is a public financing tool used to finance local public infrastructure projects.

“The TIF is the incremental amount of taxes over and above what the property currently generates,” he explained.

Snell said developer Grey Fox Capital and Pride One Construction plan to build the one-story luxury units, which have been referred to as the Parkview Senior Living project.

The TIF will include $1 million for the purchase of the on-site medical building at 865 W. Aurora Rd., which will be razed, $400,000 to demolish the building, and $1.3 million for road and trail improvements in the affected area. Improvements would include portions of Carter Road and Greenwood Parkway, as well as construction of a trail that would pass through the property, intended to provide a connection between the Summit Metro Parks Bike & Hike Trail and the Canal Towpath Trail in Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

“The TIF is simply to leverage those future tax dollars and use those dollars to do public infrastructure improvements, which include the acquisition and removal of that building, the demolition, the road improvements and the trail improvements,” Snell said.

He estimated that total improvements could amount to around $35 million.

“I think everyone in that immediate area is happy with the fact that it will be a quiet setting – knowing what could have been there commercially and the outcome,” said Trustee Paul Schweikert of the proposed residential development.

“It will be very nice, and it gets rid of a medical building that is not usable,” added Snell. “Someone would have eventually bought it and created ‘who knows what.’ Now, we know what it is, and we also get all these other benefits as a result.”

Snell explained that for the first ten years of the TIF agreement, the Nordonia Hills City School District, which approved the TIF agreement earlier this year, will continue to receive the full amount of tax dollars it receives now.

“For years one through ten, the schools are going to earn the taxes they currently earn – the clinic pays about $20,000 a year on that medical building – but a larger portion of the building is exempt from taxes,” Snell explained. “So, you’ll still get those taxes on a regular basis, but the future taxes; 25% of them are going to be made in payments to the school district, and then the balance is going to be used in the TIF. In years 11 through 30, 100% of the taxes are going to be tiffed but the township will make payments back to the [school and vocational school] through the TIF of 100% of the taxes they would have received based on the valuation of the property.”

In other action, trustees approved an agreement with the Ohio & Erie Canal Coalition to accept a $5,000 grant with matching funds to go toward initial engineering plans on the proposed connector trail between the Bike & Hike Trail and the Towpath Trail in CVNP.

Parking lot

The parking lot of the township administrative offices and safety services building received a new asphalt top coating on Aug. 4-5, according to Trustee David DePasquale. Parking space striping is expected to be complete by late August. The parking lot will be directionally marked, with all traffic entering along Valley View Road and exiting onto Dunham Road, according to a diagram drawing.

New additions

DePasquale also noted that a backup generator, paid for through a NOPEC grant, would soon be installed at the three-bay garage on the municipal property, which is currently used to park police department cruisers.

Schweikert noted delivery of a one-ton dump truck to the township. The vehicle will require a “build-out” with all functional equipment to be added to it for approximately $80,000. The vehicle replaces a 22-year-old vehicle that will be auctioned off, he added. ∞