Ozark officials consider Plan B

If a development impasse goes unresolved in Ozark, the county seat, that recognition could soon fade – along with its economy.

The day after citizens’ April 5 vote against raising the sewer impact fee from $300 to $1,800 – a cost builders pass on to home buyers – the city of Ozark stopped issuing building permits for new subdivisions. The proposed impact fees would have funded a new sewer treatment plant.

“No one is going to be able to sell property, undeveloped tracts of land, because no one can do anything with them at this point,” said Collin Quigley, Ozark city administrator. “It affects land prices, Realtor sales, developers, builders, bankers, architects, engineers, on down to the businesses that eventually are looking for that growth to locate here in Ozark and to continue to operate in Ozark. It affects our whole economy eventually.”

To avoid such a ripple effect, Ozark officials are evaluating another proposal – from the group many blame for defeating the city’s plan. In a packed April 18 meeting at Ozark City Hall, Matt Morrow, executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield, presented HBA’s Plan B to the town’s aldermen.

Morrow proposes a surcharge of $15 per month for new sewer customers, projecting between $3 million and $5 million more in revenue over a 20-year period than the proposal that voters rejected. HBA builders favor the surcharge because they say it won’t affect new home prices – the reason HBA led a charge against impact fees.

“If you don’t buy a new home, you’re off the hook,” Morrow told the crowd. “If somebody moves into an older home, they generate more (sewage), but don’t pay for it. You’re paying for it.”

More than 100 people – interested developers, Realtors, builders, residents and city officials – listened to the plan. Discussion became heated at times, especially Ward I Alderman Eric Griessel’s comments aimed at Morrow and the HBA’s involvement.

“It’s all about money with the HBA,” Griessel said, adding that HBA officials misled the public, labeling impact fees as housing taxes before the vote. “(The HBA) may or may not like how the city of Ozark runs its business, but it doesn’t matter to me. This group isn’t in Ozark.”

Morrow said that many HBA members are based in Ozark, build in Ozark, and nonmembers from Ozark have contacted the HBA asking for help. He said the HBA is involved because the issue doesn’t just affect Ozark.

“It’s a regional matter,” Morrow said. “Anything that artificially inflates the price of new homes can affect demands for new housing.”

Morrow also said three states have ruled that impact fees are housing taxes. “This is not something we invented,” he said. “We believe it is misleading to call them (impact fees).”

Griessel later called a surcharge an administrative nightmare. “I’m not sure how we can track all these new people and where they move,” he said via telephone. “It doesn’t make sense in my opinion.”

Quigley said Plan B will be discussed at the next Board of Aldermen meeting May 2.

Meanwhile, Ozark’s wastewater plant will soon reach capacity.

The plant can handle 1.75 million gallons a day and has a daily flow of 1.4 million gallons, Quigley said. To finance the $25.5 million sewer facility it needs to expand capacity, he said, the city had proposed sales taxes, increased sewer rates and developer impact fees.

“If (Plan B) doesn’t work, we’re back where we started,” Quigley said. “We’re short of revenue to build that new plant, and we’ve got to have solutions to do this. Every day that we don’t have a solution, every day that we’re not able to build new subdivisions, every day that goes by, the effect is becoming exponentially greater.”

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