Are you for or against the "One University Place" development project?
I am for the development and the benefits, both tangible and intangible, that it would bring. Easily enough to quantify is the benefit of the community room, the improvements to the Sunset/Melrose intersection and the opportunity for increased tax revenues. It is more difficult to quantify the diversification of neighbors, increasing commercial opportunities, or having a “downtown”. Imagine the opportunities and programs the community room alone would open up! I understand that those may not be seen as benefits to everyone, that some would like to keep University Heights a sleepy bedroom community. Frankly, I am not one of those: I find the opportunities a business district would offer exciting and evolutionary.
What kind of development is most appropriate at the St. Andrew Church site?
The church has been a wonderful neighbor and I would not be disappointed if they decided to stay. But they have been blessed with a growing congregation, and if they decide that a move is necessary for them, I am in favor of the property being used to advance the community, both financially and evolutionary. Financially, it is important to recognize what is economically feasible given today’s
economic environment. A development like One University Place is feasible, another Birkdale is not. The University of Iowa buying the property is also economically feasible, but it is not financially advantageous to the community. Evolutionary, I think development that has a commercial component would be a step forward for University Heights. Stella and Melrose Dental have been a boon to the area, but they can’t be a community focus like a multi-business, walkable development could be.
Are you in favor of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for development at the St. Andrew Church
site?
I am generally not in favor of TIFs. I do not like the idea of subsidizing free enterprise with public funds, and forcing businesses to pay taxes to their competitors. I also feel that if a project won’t be profitable without public money, it’s not a worthwhile project.
However, there are some facts that are unique to our situation that make this TIF arrangement worth considering. For the first concern, our community has only two other businesses that might be affected, and I would be in favor of requesting that no businesses go into the development that compete with our existing commercial properties. As a landlord, I feel any rentals the development might have would have a different target market and price range than the existing UH market.
For the second concern, I think it’s important to ask if THIS developer will go ahead with the project if the TIF is not offered. This question is important because if Maxwell does not do the project, the right of first refusal falls to the University. If the University buys the property, it definitely falls off the tax rolls and many of the benefits associated with developing the property
are lost. It will continue to be exempt from the tax rolls, and you can be sure the University will not solicit the amount of input into whatever project they decide to build that Maxwell has. While there is no way to know for sure the answer to “will it go ahead without public money?”, my professional guess is “no”.
I believe there is enough public good in this for-profit enterprise to justify considering the use of TIF.
Are you in favor of the City using the PUD process, development agreement, TIF and/or
other means as a way to prevent ownership of the church property by a tax-exempt entity?
Using the TIF agreement, in which we have some financial leverage, to protect the City’s investment is a completely reasonable suggestion.
How do you view the financial condition of University Heights and how would you monitor
and make adjustments in the future, if necessary? Do you think city services and city infrastructure are adequate in University Heights?
The next couple of years will be extremely important in directing the financial health of the City. The local options sales tax revenue has pushed the impending budget crunch down the road, because before we received that revenue, we were running a deficit, and without changes, we will go back to running a deficit when the tax ends.
Cash projections can only do so much to predict the future: in my experience preparing these sorts of analyses, if there are errors in the assumptions in the first year of the projection, that error is multiplied in later years and skews the results so that they are unusable. We need to look at Terry Lockridge and Dunn’s various analyses as best, middle, and worst case scenarios. While
each is a possibility, choosing the rosiest scenario and proclaiming financial health while refusing to plan for the worst case scenario is irresponsible.
I am trained in, and have extensive experience in, financial statement analysis and budget monitoring. It is a matter of constant supervision and awareness of where we are compared to budget and preparing informed projections of where we might end up. I believe that with a financially savvy council and firm citizen discussion on financial priorities, University Heights can maintain fiscal stability.
What are your favorite things about University Heights? What community programs or
initiatives would you encourage or how would you improve existing programs?
The best thing about University Heights is that it is small town living in a big city environment. I think we have something special that individual community members can have real input into a project like One University Place. I went to the Iowa City Council to speak against rezoning the Neuzil property, and I was respectfully listened to, but they followed the recommendation of Planning & Zoning. Here the ravine was saved, the project is smaller, and citizens had real input into the design. That would never happen in Iowa City or Coralville.
I would especially like to encourage initiatives that make our renters feel as welcome as our longer-term residents. University Heights is a home, no matter how long you’re here: I started out as a renter, and I was so pleased to be able to stay. I’ve loved seeing the Chautauqua grow; the community garden is gorgeous; and Joe and I are super excited for a community-wide garage
sale. We have an active, engaged citizenry who have spearheaded these projects and more: and that bring us together as neighbors, and make us truly the “height of good living.”
