Latest news with #Ellwein
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Marshall Mitchell: Mitchell housing development and transmission service approved for tax breaks
May 7—MITCHELL — The city of Mitchell has refined its tax increment district guidelines. The Mitchell City Council, during its regular meeting on Monday, May 5 approved the addition of Tax Increment Districts (TID) No. 41 and No. 42. TID No. 41 was approved for Paul Groeneweg's Woods Apartments, a proposed 70-unit complex with two-and-three-bedroom apartments across 12 buildings. The boundary of TID No. 41 includes the empty lots south of First Avenue between Tiger Street and Mattie Street, as well as all of Mattie Street south of First Avenue and north of East Havens Avenue. TID No. 42 will aid the expansion of the Dale's A1 Transmission service building, located south of East Ivy Street between South Burr Street and South Capital Street, and will generate an estimated $340,000. TID No. 41 will be a total maximum of $4.3 million in tax financing. TID No. 41 covers the infrastructure cost of the developer at $2.28 million. Additionally, TID No. 41 is projected to cover the city's construction of Mattie Street, estimated at $2.02 million. "We know that there is projected to be some portion of unused tax increment that should be available to support that project," City Attorney Justin Johnson said. The city has five years to develop Mattie Street if it wishes to capture the increment revenue of the TID district, according to Johnson. "The city holds the cards," Johnson said. "There's really no risk to us. You'll know with a lot more certainty how much is going to be able to come in to help fund the Mattie street construction." TID developers have to certify their costs and provide final receipt totals to the city. "If something comes in less than what they estimated that construction cost to be, then it would free up some of those funds to Mattie Street," City Administrator Stephanie Ellwein said. Council member Mike Bathke asked why this was the second time that Mattie Street had been included in a proposed tax district, and why it failed to move forward the last time. "There's no teeth in these deals," Bathke said. The city's TID evaluation process has changed since that TID was proposed, according to Ellwein. Since then, the city council has requested developers to provide more reporting and certifications. Additionally, affordable housing rental rates are a key part of TID developments. "We have a lot more oversight than what we found in the past," Ellwein said. In 2012, the original Mattie Street project, TID No. 17, was proposed when the city was still accepting the debt of developments. In 2015, Davison County Tax District No. 4 also sought to develop Mattie Street between Quiett Lane and State Highway 38, but was rejected by county commissioners. In 2021, after a four-year hiatus from approving tax districts, the city approved TID No. 26 and no longer takes on the debt of tax district developments. Don Petersen, of the Morgan Theeler law firm, who represented both TID developers, also aided the creation of the first Mattie Street tax district proposal. Times have changed for proposed tax districts. "They've tightened down the rules and the developers have accepted those and we have to play by those rules," Petersen said. Petersen reminded the council that developers carry the risk when building, and that a developer has five years to finish construction, according to the terms of the TID. Groeneweg plans to construct the first five apartment buildings by November, Petersen said. Groeneweg has other housing developments as well. Groeneweg's first approved tax district was TID No. 27 for Fiala Road. Every lot in the Fiala Road development has been sold within three years, according to Petersen. "That's just kind of a monument that shows that there's a need for this type of housing in Mitchell," Petersen said. TID No. 41 requires the developer to guarantee rental rates will be in line with affordable housing restrictions. "Affordable housing is expensive to build," Petersen said. Entry-level positions in Mitchell can't afford a $350,000 house, noted Petersen, who painted the picture of saving for a down payment while living in a family-oriented apartment could enable someone to one day own a house of their own. In the future, Ellwein plans to add more requirements for job creation to preliminary TID evaluations. Dale's A1 Transmission plans to add 10 jobs with full benefits, according to Petersen. Local resident Steve Sibson questioned how the South Dakota Department of Revenue would possibly approve TID No. 41 when it appears to be a mix of two different kinds of tax districts with two different goals. Sibson noted that a local tax district benefits a local government but does not have a regional or statewide benefit. If the state classifies TID No. 41 as a local tax district, the TID would expire. "If that were to happen, we may need to reconsider the TIF at a future date, take out whatever component the state had an issue with, and then reprocess a new TIF," Johnson said. Petersen confirmed that the state no longer pre-approves tax districts before city council approval, a recent change at the state level.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bathroom bill would set back Valley Middle School construction, cost at least $135,000
Mar. 28—GRAND FORKS — A bill implementing new restrictions on student bathroom use at North Dakota public schools could set back construction on the new Valley Middle School at least a month, according to a school official. Jonathan Ellwein, Grand Forks Public Schools' building and grounds director, said the bill's ban on shared sinks will require the district to backtrack on completed work and revise its plans for the building's other bathrooms. "The lead on that bill is, if it passes as written, Valley doesn't open on time," Ellwein said March 21. House Bill 1144, which passed the House last month, seeks to impose new restrictions on transgender K-12 students' bathroom use and the public schools those students attend. The bill is now working its way through the Senate. Proponents say the bill protects students' privacy and "transgender ideology." Critics say the bill makes a target out of trans students, some of whom already avoid school bathrooms to avoid harassment and abuse. The bill that passed the House says, among other things, "a restroom for males and a restroom for females may not be located together with a communal sink or communal area where students can enter and exit an individual stall or room." Noncompliant schools face an up to $2,500 fine per violation. Five of the new Valley's bathrooms were set to include communal sinks outside of separate bathrooms for boys and girls. Ellwein says construction workers had already poured concrete for one restroom with shared sink facilities that would have to be reworked. "We'd have to cut concrete, we'd have to move plumbing, we'd have to move electrical, we'd have to move walls in order to be compliant," he said. A change order for that restroom alone would cost the district $135,214 and an extra 30 days' work. He said construction workers have so far held off on pouring concrete where the other bathrooms are set to be located, but will have to decide in the next two to three weeks whether to go forward with the existing plans and face the fines or rework those other spaces — which will cost more time and money. Ellwein said bathroom facilities with shared sinks are meant to allow teachers to better supervise students. The feature has gone in and out of style — Ellwein says common wash areas are more common in school buildings designed between the late 1970s and the 1990s — and have again become popular in school construction with the move toward single-occupancy restrooms. The new Valley would be just the latest of several schools within the district with facilities that run afoul of the bill in its current form. All told, Ellwein counts 77 bathrooms across district schools that are out of compliance with the bill, at seven elementary schools, Nathan Twining Elementary and Middle School, and South Middle School. That includes 71 bathrooms, mostly located in kindergarten classrooms, where students access a toilet in a private room and use the classroom sink to wash their hands. Ellwein says the bill's language around "communal sinks" would disallow this setup and force "large scale changes" to bring the kindergarten facilities into compliance. Ellwein calculated a uniform per-project cost of $25,000, meaning it would cost the district more than $1.9 million to renovate all its bathrooms. He said the high per-project estimate was based on the need to make any new bathrooms compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which became law in 1990. Design plans for the new Twining school, set to be built on Grand Forks Air Force Base, include two facilities that would be considered noncompliant under the bill. Ellwein said changing those plans would incur minimal cost at this stage. Rep. Kathy Frelich, R-Devils Lake, has proposed an amendment that would exempt facilities serving students in fourth grade and younger or bathroom facilities "in existence on July 1, 2025." Ellwein says this would likely address many of his concerns about the school district's existing facilities, but says the use of the phrase "in existence" is unclear about bathrooms under construction. Frelich did not return a request for comment. Among those who voted for the bill in the House is Rep. Mark Sanford, R-Grand Forks. Sanford served as Grand Forks Public Schools' superintendent from 1981 to 2007, meaning he led the district when three of the schools with noncompliant bathrooms were constructed: South, Phoenix and Century Elementary. Century was built in 1989 and, along with the current Twining school, has 18 noncompliant bathrooms, the most in the district. Sanford did not return a request for comment. Ellwein also expressed concern on the impact the bill would have on smaller, rural districts, that have smaller financial reserves to draw on than large districts like Grand Forks. An estimate from the North Dakota Council on Educational Leadership calculates the cost of the current bill at $140 to $200 million.
