Developer: City of Springfield 'closed for business'
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. - A Springfield construction company claims sky-high development fees have put plans for a business park in the city on hold.
Hyland Construction officials told KVAL News they hope that by taking on city hall, the project won't have to move across the freeway.
High Banks Road at 52nd Street is where Hyland wants to build the new business park. The company owns the property, and built a business park at Main and 46th some years back.
"I mean people really like what we've done over there, so that's why we want to duplicated it here," said Shaun Hyland of Hyland Construction Company.
Except for one problem: The City of Springfield wants $102,000 for a tentative site review, plus another 10 percent for final review -- and that's before you factor in building fees.
"I think their slogan is open for busines," Hyland said, "and right now we feel they (the City of Springfield) are closed for business."
The dispute is over site development fees, the cost to make sure a building project conforms with city codes.
"I just don't think the true impact was felt on what this would do to a local developer trying to bring business to town," Hyland said.
Hyland's attorney did a cost comparison of site development fees in other nearby cities or counties.
- Eugene's cost would be $5,800.
- Lane County's site review process costs around $2,600.
- Salem is at a bargain basement $525.
- The City of Bend is at $14,000.
Springfield officials said the fees were raised in 2004 to do a better job of recovering the cost of site reviews. They confirmed the $102,000 figure and say it's based on the total impervious surface for the project -- a.ka. the parking spaces and building spaces combined.
KVAL News asked City Manager Gino Grimaldi if Springfield can call itself business friendly with these fees?
"I think business friendly is really determined by how we react and how we listen to people who come to us with concerns," Grimaldi said.
After a frank presentation in front of the City Council Monday night, Hyland hopes the project doesn't have to move to Eugene.
"You know I think we can get this done here, I really do," he said. "I think we'll work it through."
"We'd love to keep them here in Springfield," Grimaldi said. "We'll work with them."
The city manager said "policy options" will be laid out for the city council early next month, which may include changes to the site fee system.
