Supercenter plan raises concerns

After Ozark City Council heard a proposal for the Wal-mart Supercenter in October, public outcry including a recent 50-person rally at Wal-Mart's retail store in Ozark has increased the significance of their decision.

Ozark Centre Partners LLC and Tom Walker, its managing member, have issued a rough draft development agreement calling for a 155,000-square-foot supercenter on property at the southeast corner of U.S. Highway 65 and Christian County Highway F.

Walker is asking the city to reimburse him for $1.2 million in water and sewer public infrastructure costs. Ozark collects 1.5 percent sales tax; under the proposal, half of the incremental sales tax gains between the retail store and the supercenter would go for infrastructure reimbursement.

While the costs are not upfront, city money would be paid on the back end, which concerns Hometown Merchants Association founder John Morrison.

Morrison also serves as director of Ozark Empire Grocers Association and Missouri Grocers Association.

"We would like to see them come in on their own dollar," Morrison said.

The Hometown Merchants Association promotes a level playing field for local business and represents more than 100 businesses in southwest Missouri.

Additional questions surround the $1.7 million transportation infrastructure costs that Walker would like to see paid by a self-imposed tax district within the development, called a Transportation Develop-ment District. Ozark City Administrator Collin Quigley said the development agreement proposes an additional quarter-cent sales tax on transactions within the district. That plan is pending Circuit Court approval.

Morrison views it as a tax increase on Ozark shoppers.

"It's a general public tax increase, regulated to a district," he said. "A lot of people would like to come in and start a business and have the general population pay for it."

Quigley said the city has no say whether the developer forms a transportation district, because it is based on a vote of the property owners within the district and ultimately the Circuit Court.

"The development agreement the city is being asked to contemplate is only looking at the infrastructure reimbursement," he said. "The transportation development district, although it is extremely necessary and beneficial for this development, that part of it is essentially outside of the city."

Walker, who developed Nixa's Wal-Mart Supercenter, could not be reached for comment.

Council should have a final draft to vote on before the end of the year, Quigley said.