Council first approved a reimbursement grant of up to $60,000 for a new water line at Wood Ridge Plaza off I-45. The water line was proposed by CH Realty for a future tenant at the plaza, and construction will be overseen be that organization. Once the project is complete it will be connected to the city's infrastructure as a public water line, and the city's economic development corporation will pay back up to $60,000 as a sales tax rebate to CH Realty.
Council members then considered several proposals regarding the construction of a water line and sewer line that would serve Copeland Gun Range, a new proposed facility within the city's ETJ. The range property is not currently eligible for annexation as it does not connect to the city limits, although the owner said he hopes to be annexed in the future.
Given the property's location, the range required a development agreement for any infrastructure work that would provide city water and sewer services to the facility, which was initially discussed at an April council meeting. The new infrastructure would also provide a possible future benefit for Oak Ridge North as development continues along its eastern city limit.
“We’re getting a water line in an area that [will be] in our ETJ in the future that is going to help us expand," Council Member Tom Coale said. "Through this agreement, we’re getting a way to finance that.”
After discussing various plans for the construction and payment of the new water line, estimated at a total cost of around $174,000, council members agreed on an option that would provide the gun range with its initial impact fee and the cost of upgrading the water line from 8 inches to 12 inches to allow for future developments to be better served by the line. The impact fee of nearly $100,000 would be paid to the city and placed in escrow, then returned as water line construction progresses. The approximately $17,662 cost difference for upgrading the water line size would also be returned to the developer, leaving around $56,532 that would be returned partially through a city payment and future impact fee breaks.
“We’re going to collect $99,000, we’re going to give him back $99,000 as he builds it. We’re going to give him another $17,000, and that leaves a gap for him of [$56,000]; we’re going to give him half of that. The other half he’s going to get back with one half of future impact fees," Coale said.
To close the meeting, council also agreed to move forward on a sales tax preservation agreement that would allow a new dental office to open at Wood Ridge Plaza. The dentist would move into the space formerly occupied by Strickland Dental, which relocated its office from the I-45 plaza to Robinson Road last year.
"The space is already built out for a dental office; its highest and best use is putting a dentist in that same space," Council Member Alex Jones said.
Council is scheduled to meet next July 13. The city will also hold an Independence Day parade the morning of July 4 running along an extended 4-mile loop throughout Oak Ridge North.
