The Havre de Grace City Council has waived millions of dollars in fees for a developer who wants to rebuild on the site of Tranquility Townhomes.
An agreement waiving $4.2 million in fees for developer Clark Turner to replace 246 World War II-era duplexes with 307 modern townhomes stuttered to a 3-3 tie at the last City Council meeting, with Mayor John Corerri breaking the tie in favor of the deal.
In return, developer Turner agreed to put up $500,000 for the planning and engineering of a $10 million project to divert excess water from Lily Run, which runs through the city and is prone to flooding. He would, however, eventually be paid back out of tax funds.
Turner, a major developer in the county, is also involved in the high-profile Bulle Rock project in Havre de Grace.
New developments typically pay two fees for every new connection to the city?s water infrastructure: one for the water/sewer hook-up and another for the additional demand upon the city?s water system.
The deal waived the latter fee for most of the proposed 307 townhomes, since the system had already been supplying the 246 existing homes, said Council President Fred Cullum, who voted in favor of the resolution along with councilmen James Miller and Stephen Gamatoria.
“The city was never entitled to those fees to begin with,” Cullum said.
But the other half of the council expressed concern thatthe city already needed to raise its rates for city water service and had been counting on the additional $4.2 million revenue from the redevelopment project.
Without that revenue, the city would have to re-calculate its rates ? and likely raise them even more, said Councilman Garrett Lyttle, who voted against the deal.
The last chance for the agreement to be changed would be if the entire project is rejected by the Board of Appeals, Councilman Wayne Dougherty said. Lyttle hoped citizens would go out and speak against it. The project is scheduled to be considered at the Board of Appeals? meeting Wednesday.
