New Richmond
(WQOW) - An area
city has been enticing new building projects in a unique way. For the past 18
months, New Richmond has waived a certain type of fee for those looking to
build in the city. The city is hoping to draw in six million dollars in new
taxable property.
In the summer of 2011 the city of New Richmond was facing a
building lull.
"We were coming off
highs of 216 permits a year, which is, for our community of 8,000, that's a
good strong number for us, the last two years we've had about 16 permits per
year, not the strongest," says Bob Barbian, the Director of Community
Development and Planning for the city of New Richmond.
So the city council decided to be
proactive. In hopes of attracting more
builders, they went back to the ways of the Old West.
"They decided to
come up with a program, and they tabbed it the "New Richmond Land Rush:
Come Stake Your Claim"," Barbian says. "Basically they said we're
going to waive or suspend our fees, we have impact fees in New Richmond, and
they are to take care of sewage capacity, water capacity and those items."
Which saved builders and potential
companies nearly $10,000 a permit, and brought in dozens of new businesses and
homes.
"Right now we have
a 50 unit hotel coming in, and they're going to save about $275,000," says New
Richmond City Council president Jim Zajdowski.
"Thankfully this
year we're doing fairly well, 24 have been completed, we have 24 permits that
have been issued for new units, and we have about 10 more pending," says
Barbian.
Not only adding more taxable land
for the city, but more jobs as well.
"We've probably received
letters of intent for our business and tech park and commercial lands of about
four or five, and I believe that those jobs would total about 50 to 60 jobs
right off the bat," Barbian says.
And the city expects the building to
continue over the next several years, thanks to a $600 million DOT project.
"With the new bridge
coming across the St. Croix River, we're
seeing a lot of interest in our community. We have the four lane highway going
from New Richmond to that bridge, so we're the endpoint of the four lane
highway," Zajdowski says.
"When that bridge
is done we'll be about 30 minutes from downtown St. Paul."
The city
says even though they are losing some money up front, because they aren't
receiving the permit fees, they believe it will be beneficial in the long run.
They ended up getting $9 million in taxable new business in the city.
