Published: March 26, 2009 09:10 am      

Comp Plan committees discuss city growth

By TESA CULLI

tesa.culli@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — A possible tax increment finance district and planned unit development are some of the goals identified by members of the Comprehensive Plan committees for the new development areas near the new Interstate 57/64 overpass/interchange area.

“We want to look at growth not as a reactive process, but take a more organized approach in that area with a review process and standards,” City Manager Ron Neibert said. Neibert is a member of both the Infrastructure Committee and the Land Use Committee for the Comprehensive Plan.

As the final stages of committee input and final plan are approaching, members of each of the established committees met Tuesday to discuss goals identified by each for growth in the city. Committees include Quality of Life, Economic Development, Land Use and Infrastructure. A Comprehen-sive Plan Finance Committee has not yet been created.

“We have an ambitious schedule of work to complete,” Steering Committee Chairman Nick Osborne said. “There has been a tremendous amount of time and work that everyone has put into this document. This is a Comprehensive Plan that will guide this city through 2019.”

Neibert said specific zoning and building standards for the development area has not been part of the Comprehensive Plan process.

“We can’t set standards now because we don’t know the demand,” Land Use Committee Chairman Dorothy Wood said. “But our goal is to move to a more planned development for the area.”

Planned Unit Development is used to describe a development and the regulatory process that permits a developer to meet overall community density and land use goals without being bound by existing zoning requirements, according to the National Center for Land Use Education in Washington, D.C.

“PUD is a special type of floating overlay district which generally does not appear on the municipal zoning map until a designation is requested,” information from the center explains. “This is applied at the time a project is approved and may include provisions to encourage clustering of buildings, designation of common open space and incorporation of a variety of building types and mixed land uses. ... Potential benefits of a PUD include more efficient site design, preservation of amenities such as open space, lower costs for street construction and utility extension for the developer and lower maintenance costs for the municipality.”

Part of the area which the new interchange will open for development contains a railway spur, and according to Councilwoman Mary Burgan, who is a member of the Economic Development Committee, the Jefferson County Development Corp-oration has received several inquiries about the area due to the availability of railway transportation for goods.

“One of the changes in economic development that has happened is in the distribution system for manufacturing and distribution centers,” said Eric White of DMI, the consulting firm working with the city in creating the plan. “Large centers are a thing of the past. Now, they are looking at multiple smaller locations to serve regions and try to move by train as much as possible. Getting a rail spur is very important right now.”

Mayor Mary Jane Chesley pointed out Mt. Vernon has three Class 1 railways.

With the rail spur in mind, Neibert said the goal is to implement a TIF district in that area.

“Under the TIF statute, we can only use an Industrial TIF,” Neibert explained. It’s also another tool that allows for mixed use in the area.”

The committees are scheduled to meet again on April 16 to present final draft of their parts of the plan, which will be turned over to DMI for final draft reports that are expected to be presented to the City Council on May 4.