From the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette:
Annexations have historically sparked some debate – Aboite Township being Exhibit A – but it is unusual for that debate to be generated by a landowner pleading to be let into a community to a lukewarm City Council.
That is the problem facing David Painter and his proposal to build a $1.3 million dental complex at what he hopes to be Fort Wayne’s newest northern tip – at the northeast corner of Union Chapel and Coldwater roads.
Of course, the issue is not clean cut. It includes a request for a tax abatement, a previous conflict with Allen County officials and a question on whether the project is financially worth the effort.
The council last week delayed voting on the annexation’s financial plan and is scheduled to discuss it tonight. It will also introduce a bill to complete the annexation tonight.
Rob Young, with CME Corp., spoke on behalf of the property owner last week and made it clear the plan to build was contingent upon the council approving a tax break for the project. Annexation mixed with a tax abatement made several council members uncomfortable, especially as the council prepares to wrestle with the issue of whether any medical service projects are worthy of abatements at all.
Councilman Tom Smith, R-1st, for example, said last week that he no longer believes he will support abatements for construction projects related to medical service providers. The council will meet next week in a special fifth Tuesday meeting to discuss the broader policy question.
Councilman Russ Jehl, R-2nd, is leading the broader policy discussion but said he has specific concerns with the dental request.
His primary problem is that Allen County officials privately rejected Painter’s request for an abatement. For the city to turn around and grant him one would be like “throwing sand in the sandbox,” he said, especially for such a small project.
“That’s to me, just not good leadership,” he said.
County Councilman Darren Vogt, R-3rd, attended last week’s meeting and later said he was one of the county officials who opposed granting the project an abatement. He called the issue an “interesting dilemma.”
“We don’t want to put communities against each other,” he said.
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http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120522/LOCAL/305229979/0/SEARCH
