Letter to the editor: Apartment questions
To the editor:
Sunday’s Journal-World article on potential apartment development raises a number of questions for me. If I understand correctly, the city’s strategic plan (now under review) is informed by the city’s 20-year long-range development plans, which apparently aren’t long range enough to account for the city’s capacity for another 6,000 apartment units to be built.
Don’t the city, county and school district rely on property tax to function? How does promoting rental development grow the tax base, particularly if a tax abatement is given? How do homeowners benefit from a transient population that uses the infrastructure built with these taxes? How can the school district prepare its staff and resources for a growing (and shifting) rental population of students each year?
If increases in the mill levy occur, how does that affect the corporate developer who likely received a tax abatement to build these rental units? How many tax abatements have been given that exceed the long-range Horizon plan currently in place? Has any study been done comparing affordable, modest single-family home development against apartment development? Which pays more, for a longer period, into the mill levy?