In the 1950s, Craig Milum’s dad came to Phoenix to take over a failing laundry business. He turned it around and built it up. Craig started working there in 1963 at age 13.
And he kept working there, including through his college years at ASU, where he met his wife Marilyn. In the late 1970s, Craig and Marilyn took over the business from Craig’s dad. And finally, in 2019, approaching his 70s and after more than 50 years of hard work in the business, Craig retired.
The laundry business sits on what is now very valuable land in the downtown core. Phoenix has zoned it for some of the tallest and densest uses in the city.
In fact, Phoenix wants this area to be a “dense, vibrant, urban mixed-use area that is a center for commerce and high-rise urban living.”
And given all the other private development in the area, including new complexes surrounding it, the land the laundry business sits on is a prime candidate for someone to buy and redevelop into more housing.
Phoenix halts the Milums’ retirement plans
Some 70 years after the family bought it, the property’s value now represents Craig and Marilyn’s nest egg for their retirement.
But Phoenix might wreck the Milums’ retirement plans and their property rights.
The shuttered laundry buildings are old and seriously deteriorating, with frequent break-ins by homeless people. So, for public safety and to speed up redevelopment, the Milums wanted to demolish them.
Phoenix said not so fast. Instead, city employees want to designate the building as historic.
But it is not like George Washington slept here. Instead, Phoenix wants the Milums to save the ceilings — a part of the structure that is only “historic” because its design was so structurally unsound that builders stopped using it decades ago.
Why spend millions on a building they’ll sell?
To do that, the Milums would have to spend millions to rehabilitate the buildings. Additionally, the designation would limit the future use of the property. If the property cannot be used for the dense mixed-use zoning that Phoenix says it otherwise wants, then the property is worth far less, and the Milum’s nest egg is far less certain.
Even assuming that “saving ceilings” is a legitimate use of government power, the Milums cannot be forced to shoulder the millions that Phoenix’s demands will cost. This is not a public health and safety action.
It’s a mistake:To demolish this Phoenix home
A historic designation is not like a fire code or a sanitation law.
And nearly two decades ago, Arizona voters overwhelmingly adopted the Private Property Rights Protection Act. The law requires the government to reimburse owners when new regulations reduce existing rights to use, divide, sell or possess private property.
An example of suffocating land-use regulations
And this fight illustrates another problem with the city’s land-use regulations: They cause higher housing prices.
Arizona, and the Phoenix area in particular, is in the middle of a housing affordability crisis. This crisis, as the Legislature itself has recognized in the “Arizona Starter Home Act” bill that was passed but vetoed, “is caused in no small part due to highly restrictive regulations imposed by municipalities.”
These restrictive zoning regulations prevent the construction of new housing which would, because of supply and demand, have the effect of lowering housing prices. So not only will Phoenix’s designation cost the Milums millions, it will also prevent more housing development.
Phoenix’s Planning Commission voted against the designation earlier in April.
Now it is up to City Council. They should vote against it too.
Otherwise, Phoenix taxpayers will be on the hook for the harm to the Milums’ rights and retirement they spent a lifetime working toward.
In all fairness and justice, if the government thinks that protecting old ceilings is important and desirable, the cost of doing so must be borne by the public as a whole.
Phoenix cannot force the Milums to bear that cost alone.
Paul Avelar is the Arizona managing attorney with the Institute for Justice and Ari Bargil is a senior attorney with the institute. Reach them at pavelar@ij.org and abargil@ij.org.
GLASSBORO — Construction of townhomes could start as early as July on a patchwork of parcels the borough owns on and near South Academy Street, an area Glassboro has struggled to redevelop.
Late last year, the Borough Council agreed to sell the real estate for $1.45 million to Woods Glassboro Properties Development LLC. The council also named the company the official redeveloper for the properties, which include lots that are vacant because of past demolitions.
The company will build 38 duplex townhome buildings over two phases, for a total of 76 residential units. The plan was approved after a lengthy public hearing Tuesday night before the Planning Board.
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“The development is going to be set up as a condominium, with the owner of each individual unit owning their unit,” company attorney Matthew Madden told the board. “But otherwise, the property will be owned and managed by a homeowners association.”
The first phase involves 13 buildings, built on two sites, on the west side of South Academy Street. All buildings are to be three stories tall.
The second phase involves 24 buildings, for another 48 residential units, on the east side of Academy Street and partially off Warrick Avenue. A clubhouse is part of phase two.
Frank Cifelli and Sean Frankel, two of the principals in the company, testified at the hearing.
Cifelli said phase two construction is tentatively slated to start in January 2025. The company has done projects with this style of townhome in the Philadelphia area with good success, he said.
Cifelli said the price range will start around $350,000. “We expect it to be a pretty successful development,” he said.
The project reached this stage after a lot of discussions with borough officials. One critical point was the borough desire to keep townhomes turning into rental properties for the college student population.
Cifelli said sale agreements will have provisions to make it difficult for investors to buy and turn around to rent a unit.
Borough Administrator Edward Malandro supported that claim, saying the company is adapting language the borough’s redevelopment attorney provided.
“This is a product that mayor and council have gone after for quite some time,” Malandro, an ex-councilman, said. “Academy Street? Trying to redevelop that? Again, I’ve been involved for close to 25 years now. And it’s been a struggle to redevelop that section of town. We think we have a great partner.”
On Thursday, Malandro said a closing date is not set for selling the land.
Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey 36 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.
Have a tip? Reach out atjsmith@thedailyjournal.com. Support local journalism with a subscription.
After reviewing Springfield’s revenues and tax base, a consulting firm working with the city warns that additional investment in new and existing infrastructure is needed.
Urban3, along with urban planning firm Multistudio, has been tasked with leading an effort to update city code to align with the Forward SGF comprehensive plan. Ahead of a public presentation on the costs of development and their impacts on the fiscal sustainability of the city Thursday night at the Springfield Art Museum, Phillip Walters, Urban3 project manager, shared the findings at a media preview.
Current infrastructure is aging, in need of investment
Walters compared a city to a corporation where residents are both owners and customers since infrastructure that Springfieldians use comes out of city coffers — and ultimately citizens’ pockets.
Most roads in Springfield were built in the 1960s through 1980s, meaning the maintenance work and the need to rebuild roads that were built in the 1970s is quickly approaching and will require more work in the future. Springfield has 1,900 lane miles of roads — by comparison, the entire length of Route 66 stretches 2,400 miles. This comes down to 26 feet of road to be maintained per person living in Springfield.
“As a community you’ve got to keep paying for these things,” Walters said.
The city currently spends about $48 million annually on road maintenance, but the amount needed to keep roads at the level of quality acceptable to most people is almost double that, at $80 million.
In addition to roads, Springfield has miles and miles of stormwater and wastewater infrastructure. Combined, these pipes stretch 3,000 miles. The current wastewater maintenance investment of $61 million a year is close to the $77 million total needed every year, in part because wastewater is operated as a utility with service charges. Stormwater maintenance, meanwhile, needs $15 million, more than double the current $6 million a year that is budgeted, according to Urban3 findings.
“You don’t have to spend this tomorrow, some of these pipes are so new that they’re not gonna get to that rebuild (phase) for another 20, 30, 40 years,” Walters said. “But that is sort of the stable mature cost of the system you already have.”
In the overall city budget, wastewater makes up 13% of costs and roads 9%. Springfield relies heavily on sales taxes for revenue, yet only a small portion of these revenues go to Public Works and the wastewater system. Walters said in total, city infrastructure needs an additional $64 million annually to maintain the systems serving the city at the desired quality.
Stormwater infrastructure carries about 14 billion gallons of runoff each year. Walters suggested that to reduce the cost of maintenance and upkeep of this system, trees can provide a solution. Trees can be a way to extend pervious areas and intercept water above ground when it rains and absorb it below groundm, reducing the strain on the pipes and extending their lifetime. While trees cost money, the benefit outweighs that price — it’s much cheaper than pipe work, he said, in addition to adding to the green spaces of the city.
Making money to pay for infrastructure
At Urban3’s first part of the Forward SGF presentation in November, Joe Minicozzi focused on the value of development per acre it uses. Downtown and Historic Commercial Street were examples of mixed-use development that has the most value for Springfield, compared to sprawling shopping centers and malls.
Infrastructure is up to the city to pay for, but in order to make money to support that infrastructure, Minicozzi pointed to the need to invest in and promote developments that are the most valuable and productive for the city. Further expansion will only continue to drive those costs up with less revenue coming in per acre.
“There’s more than one way you could address this potential shortfall, and one of them is to think a little bit differently about simply the way you choose to use your land and what that actually does to your infrastructure systems,” Walters said.
When it comes to zoning, unsurprisingly Walters said residentially zoned areas bring in the least amount of revenue. This is because local property taxes make up a very small portion of Springfield’s revenue. When it comes to more commercial and industrial zoning areas, those zoned for mixed use bring in the most revenue and cost the least.
“There’s a lot of stuff, 80% of the stuff, is not generating the revenue that it takes to cover its costs,” he said noting how prominent residential zoning is in Springfield.
Applying the information in the reports
The consultants’ findings offer the public and city leaders a look at the current fiscal situation in Springfield and opportunities moving forward as the city begins the code update process. The quantitative data on costs and revenues is only a part of what will be considered. Randall Whitman, principal planner with the city’s Planning and Neighborhoods Team, said the qualitative data — including feedback from the public — is harder to quantify.
“The qualitative side of it is a little bit subjective, and it’s an emotional characteristic. It’s not a positive or negative number that shows up on our ledger,” he said.
Springfield Planning & Zoning Commission will meet Thursday morning for a workshop on the development code updates. A meeting on the topic for Springfield City Council is set for Tuesday, March 5. The goal of the updates is to implement principles and policy recommendations outlined in Forward SGF and support development in the city that benefits both Springfield’s fiscal health and quality of place for its residents.
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Whitman said Multistudio is anticipating having a draft of code updates sometime in April and will build on that swiftly.
“We were targeting to have a substantial completion of the code by the end of the calendar year,” he said. “We recognize that there may be some things we’ve got to come back to next year and clean up, but we’ve got a very aggressive schedule.”
Minicozzi will give a full presentation on the second half of the fiscal analysis to the public Thursday evening at 6-8 p.m. at the Springfield Art Museum. To view his previous presentation and learn more about the process visit www.ForwardSGF.com.
Marta Mieze covers local government at the News-Leader. Contact her with tips at mmieze@news-leader.com.
Ohio homebuilders are pushing state lawmakers to eliminate local zoning referendums, create a tax-abatement program that doesn’t require school-board approval, and other policies that would make it easier for companies to build more homes.
They say the lack of new homes is slowing growth in central Ohio and that builders are not meeting demand statewide.
“For the last 15 years in central Ohio, we’ve underbuilt,” said Kenny McDonald, president and CEO of the Columbus Partnership economic development organization. “Supply and demand are just out of balance.”
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The Building Industry Association of Central Ohio’s report, “Ohio Housing Policy White Paper: Strategies to Address Ohio’s Housing and Economic Challenges,” was presented Wednesday morning at the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
It recommends several policy changes. Among them:
- Create a Governor’s Housing Council that would include developers, local government, business and community leaders who would advise the governor on how Ohio can address the housing crisis, establish housing as a statewide concern, and adopt a comprehensive strategy for housing development.
- Regulate small, non-limited home rule township zoning at the state level that would put zoning in the hands of county government.
- Enact state legislation that permits residential development where retail zoning now exists.
- Create a new Ohio Housing Infrastructure Fund of $250 million to offer competitive grants for large and small cities to build dense residential projects.
- Increase the amount of funding from $100 million a year to $400 million for the state’s Transformational Mixed Use District Program.
- Eliminate referendums for zoning decisions.
“Local zoning decisions in Ohio involve a substantial amount of time, public input, public hearings, and ultimately a vote by local government officials,” the paper says. “Permitting a referendum vote on the zoning decision among voters, the majority of which will not have access to any of the facts related to the zoning decision, creates an unpredictable business model for the creation of residential development.”
The report said that Indiana, Tennessee, and Texas do not use referendums for local zoning decisions, and that 22 states do not have any initiative or referendum process.
“There are simply too many boxes to check to get a house built in central Ohio,” said Jon Melchi, executive director of the central Ohio BIA.
The report, prepared by The Montrose Group LLC, a Columbus-based economic development and lobbying company, said central Ohio needs to build 18,000 homes and apartments a year to keep up with demand but is taking out only 13,000 permits, which drives up housing costs.
“We need housing of all stripes and shapes in Ohio,” Melchi said.
The lack of new homes, the report claims, contributed to central Ohio’s population growing 17.4% over the past decade, lagging metro areas of Charlotte (56%), Austin (40%), Nashville (28%) and Indianapolis (21%).
More:As Columbus booms, its suburbs limit affordable housing options
The group also wants the state to give cities and counties the power to sign off on residential tax abatements without school board approval.
“News reports are full of local school boards denying approval for large-scale economic development projects all over the state of Ohio,” the report says. “In some cases, these school districts are in Licking County and are denying residential development that could build workforce housing needed for workers at the planned Intel facility.”
The report also recommends extending and expanding tax credit programs, creating an Ohio Rural Housing Loan Program, and streamlining Ohio’s property tax appraisal system.
Some communities have also said a lack of housing is hindering economic development efforts. In October, the Union County Chamber of Commerce released a statement that the county had more than 8,300 unfilled jobs and an average home-sale price of more than $430,000.
“Ultimately, if employers cannot find workers to fill these positions, the community decides to slow housing development, and the home sale price point stays at $430K+, our community’s quality of life will be in peril,” the county chamber said.
Meanwhile, Columbus officials are in the midst of revamping the city’s 70-year-old zoning code that would make it easier for developers to build housing, and which concerns some who believe they won’t have enough of a say as to what is built in their areas. The city has also expanded tax abatements for new housing throughout the city, instead of in blighted pockets.
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