THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 21, 1995 TAG: 9508210030
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERRI WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 134 lines
Special tax districts are nothing new.
They're routinely set up to spur economic development by increasing taxes in designated zones, even near new football stadiums. But a city proposal to expand a taxing district in northern Suffolk - increasing the tax rate from $1.03 to $1.22 per $100 valuation - has spurred an uproar instead of visions of economic grandeur.
Longtime residents insist that they shouldn't have to dish out more money for roads, water and sewerage - basic city services that would largely benefit developers and newcomers. They're just plain tired of waiting for the city to bring improvements north, some say.
City officials argue that the higher tax rate is the quickest way to give residents services that many of them have sought for years; that Suffolk's capital-improvements budget is simply inadequate to meet demands.
While officials admit the intent is to spur development, they argue that economic growth would be good for everyone.
But even the developer of Harbourview, the mammoth, planned community taking shape in northern Suffolk, has misgivings about a special taxing district that includes residential areas. Just as longtime residents say newcomers would benefit from their extra taxes, newcomers should not have to subsidize services for others, argues Robert T. Williams, executive vice president for the Jorman Group, the project's developer.
Williams said other communities - including the affluent Westhaven Lakes, recently approved for city-financed sewerage - have escaped additional tax burdens.
``How can you justify that?'' he asked. ``I think we dealt with the commercial end, but when you expand it to the residential areas, you still have questions.''
Councilwoman Marian B. Rogers, who represents the northern section of Suffolk, has made up her mind: ``It's a lousy idea.''
Saying ``it's wrong to ask one group of people to shoulder the (cost of) services for their own area,'' she vows to fight the proposal if it gets before the City Council.
Like some of her constituents, she also takes issue with specific improvements the expanded district would finance: $61,000 to improve the entrance to the Frederick Campus of Tidewater Community College, and $264,000 for a water main loop under Interstate 664 to the private Bridgeway Commerce Park.
Harbourview developers already paid a water resource recovery charge for water main projects there, she said, so asking Harbourview residents for more money is ``double taxation.''
Communities in the proposed district include Wynnewood, Huntersville, Holly Acres-Respass Beach, Armistead Forest and the newly developing communities of Harbourview.
The controversial plan began last year, when council members and city staffers met to discuss ways to stimulate Suffolk's growth. Out of that came a plan to designate an area west of the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel and just off I-664 a commercial and industrial district. Industries there would be charged an additional 19 cents on the tax rate to fund water main projects and motivate growth there.
The council recently voted to begin taxing the industries by this winter. The estimated $400,000 annually from the tax will help pay for the estimated $4 million in bond debts for the water main projects, said City Finance Director Lee C. Acors.
Assistant City Manager Jim G. Vacalis said he couldn't comment on the college entrance or water projects but stressed that the proposal is not ``set in stone.'' And he emphasized that taxing districts aren't long-term: ``Once the improvements are made, it's off the tax rolls.''
That does little to ease the minds of longtime residents worried about their finances.
``We are down here in a low-income area, and they want us to pay for all those big houses and development,'' said Shirley M. Snellings, president of the Huntersville Civic League. ``I don't think that's fair to us. We can't afford it.''
City tax records show property values in Huntersville range from $7,500 to $33,000. In Respass Beach, on the James River, they range from $21,000 to $300,000.
The tax on property assessed at $12,000 would jump from $123 to $146. For a property valued at $120,000, taxes would escalate from $1,236 to $1,464.
Williams, the Harbourview developer, said an expanded district wouldn't be equitable. He is developing nearby Burbage Grant as well as Harbourview. Houses range from $100,000 to $217,000.
It will cost residents about $10,000 a lot for drainage, curbs and sewerage in his developments. He doesn't think it fair for them to also pay the additional 19 cents.
For others, the waiting is the problem.
Karen Johnson, president of the Respass Beach-Holly Acres Civic League, said residents have waited for water, sewerage and other city services since the city of Nansemond and Suffolk merged in 1974.
``We're conscious of the difficulty it takes to reach us,'' she said, ``but we've been given two to three pitches that we'd have an industrial tax base and we wouldn't have to pay for the improvements because of that district. So, we've waited and sat, and now they're asking us to pay.''
Other city dwellers already pay higher taxes because they get more services. Residents of the core city of Suffolk pay $1.21 per $100 valuation, as opposed to $1.03 in old Nansemond.
Occupants of the central business district pay $1.41, while some residents of Harbourview pay $1.21.
If water and sewerage lines were extended to the northern Suffolk communities, residents would face hookup and water resource recovery fees.
So where does that leave the expanded tax district debate?
Mayor S. Chris Jones said he's talked to about 40 residents by phone and at his pharmacy in Bennett's Creek, and most were against the plan.
``We want to defer to what the residents have to say,'' he said. ``We probably won't need a public hearing with the feedback we've gotten.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Suffolk Mayor S. Chris Jones
[side bar]
City officials say an expanded I-664 Development District, with
19 cents added to the tax rate, could support $8 million in bond
debt over the next five years. The increase would raise $400,000 to
$450,000 a year.
Initial projects:
Town Point Road improvements, $900,000
Holly Acres utility extensions, $1,580,000
Old Skeat Road, Freeman Road and Old Town Point Road
improvements, $880,000
Tidewater Community College entrance improvements, $61,000
Wynnwood entrance to College Drive, $41,000
Water main loop from Hampton Roads Sanitation District, under
I-664 to Bridgeway Commerce Park, $264,000
Fire station and municipal center, $1,200,000
Water main loop at Route 17, $140,000
Burbage Drive extension, $500,000
by CNB