Developer Offering to Dedicate 33 Acres for Port Royal Park Expansion

port royal park

BY QUINT QUALLS 

The Spring Hill Board of Mayor and Alderman is considering a proposal by a local developer who said he will dedicate 32.89 acres of land to the city if the planning commission’s condition of approval for his new development’s preliminary plat requiring him to build a sidewalk is removed.

Developer Randall Shaw, of Shaw Enterprises, came before the Board of Mayor and Alderman in August to offer the dedication of land for Port Royal Park in exchange for exemption from the city’s adequate facilities tax for his new subdivision, The Cove at Spring Hill. It is located near the intersection of Tom Lunn Road and Port Royal Road.

Although city leaders chose not to exempt Shaw from the tax in August, they did accept his dedication, only requiring him to construct sidewalks on one side of the streets of the new development.

Earlier this week, Shaw asked the Board to reverse the planning commission’s decision on Sept. 12 to approve the preliminary plat for The Cove with the condition that Shaw be required to construct a sidewalk on the west side of Tom Lunn Road.

“I’m going ahead and dedicating the 37.5 feet for whenever that becomes a collector road,” Shaw said. “I don’t feel I should have to build sidewalk on that when it’s not a collector street. This is tied to the dedication of 33 acres. I’m not asking back the adequate facilities fees, and I’m still going to do sidewalk on one side of development.”

While many city leaders expressed disapproval of the request, they did agree to hear Shaw’s formal appeal at their next meeting.

Alderman Jonathan Duda said at some point, somebody will have to put a sidewalk in along Tom Lunn Road, and that Shaw was essentially asking the city to take responsibility for that in his request.

“I just feel like the subdivision closest to our park should have sidewalks that feed into it, so I’m not going to support this,” Duda said.

Both Aldermen Susan Zemek and Matt Fitterer concurred.

“We made a concession as part of negotiations,” Fitterer said. “I think the road, even if it is not currently built to collector road standards, it is a collector road, it’s designated as such in our Major Thoroughfare Plan. So even though it’s not functional as one today, that doesn’t make it not a collector road.

“Our standard for other development elsewhere in the city is building a sidewalk on a collector road or a fee in lieu of. I’m fine with a fee in lieu of, but I don’t see how letting you out of the fee or construction makes sense with what we’ve done elsewhere.”

On the other hand, Alderman Bruce Hull said a 33-acre expansion of the park is a good deal for a sidewalk and that he would support Shaw’s appeal.

Alderman Chad Whittenburg said he would be interested in comparing the value of the land with how much it would cost to build the sidewalk. Alderman Kayce Williams added the city would have to construct a bridge in order to provide access to the park.

“I know some are confused on what we were looking at here,” Whittenburg said. “Based on the math by Jonathan, and what I know it costs to put concrete sidewalks in, you’re looking at about – between the bridge, concessions and sidewalks – you’re looking at about $220,000. Divided by 32 acres, we’re looking at getting 32 acres for $6,500 an acre. I think if we would have had that figure in front of us when we had the adequate facilities discussion last month, we would have bid on it.

“I would say, if that’s brought back to us on appeal, that’s a pretty good deal.”

The Board agreed to hear Shaw’s formal appeal at its voting meeting on Monday, Oct. 17.

Shaw said if they can’t work out the negotiations over the sidewalk, he will pull the dedication and end up selling the land to the highest bidder within 30 days.

Quint Qualls covers Spring Hill for Home Page Media Group. Reach him at [email protected].

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