(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors today (Tues.) approved a joint agreement with the city of Spirit Lake that would allow the city to proceed in forming an urban renewal area for a new housing project while annexation procedures take place with the state.
The new subdivision, known as “The Dwellings”, is being proposed for some land just outside of the current city limits. City Attorney/Administrator Gregg Owens told the supervisors the developer wants to start work yet this construction season. He says due to procedural issues, it wouldn’t be possible to do that without having the joint agreement in place…
“If the property isn’t formerly annexed in, we can’t proceed with the urban renewal area that we expect to create. We can’t proceed with the developer agreement with the developer for the TIF and all those kinds of things. And in essence, because the developer would have to wait until July even to start that process, which then involves getting the agreement ready, hearings, public hearings, notices, and those kind of things, the developer is basically going to lose the benefit of almost all of the current construction season.”
Owens says the joint agreement, which he says is allowed under Iowa Code, would take care of that…
“It will allow the urban renewal area to be created now, and while the annexation is finalizing, it would allow the developer to start working on with the city, the urban renewal area, the developer agreement, all kinds of things that we could do parallel instead of sequence in, and delaying. The practical affect for the county is only that once the annexation is final, this temporary permission would expire because the property is basically in the city at that point in time any way.”
The Spirit Lake City Council is expected to take up the agreement at their meeting this (Tues.) evening.
