Summary
Developers asked the council to soften recent changes to the city’s public improvement district (PID) policy. Council instructed staff to proceed with the $65-per-lot administrative fee recommendation (to apply through the life of the PID) and approved 2025 annual assessment updates for Lagos, Manor Heights and Rose Hill PIDs.
Developers and their advisors told the Manor City Council that a recent update to the city’s PID policy materially reduced gross principal available to bond issuances and asked for waivers to mitigate that change.
Presenters from DPFG and outside counsel described the effects for two projects: Lagos (where assessments had already been levied) and New Haven (where assessments had not yet been levied). Speakers said changes made in July increased the annual collection cost for major improvement areas and, as a result, reduced the gross principal available to developers by several hundred thousand dollars on the projects shown.
Developers requested two principal accommodations: (1) an administrative fee of $65 per single-family lot (rather than a higher ongoing administrative fee), limited in their initial requests in some cases to five years; and (2) a temporary increase to the city’s tax-rate-equivalent cap (requested up to about 31¢ or 31.3¢ in the examples shown) to make the developer financially whole following the policy change.
Councilmembers raised concerns about shifting costs to residents. Assistant City Attorney Veronica Rivera and city staff explained the process for updating the service-and-assessment plans (SAP) and preliminary limited offering memoranda (PLOMs) and that council direction was needed so staff could produce revised documents for the Sept. 3 agenda.
After discussion the council directed staff to proceed with the staff recommendation of a $65 administrative fee to apply through the life of each PID and indicated no increase to the city’s existing tax-rate-equivalent cap should be approved at this time. Staff noted the SAPs and PLOMs will be revised and returned to the council on Sept. 3.
Separately and later in the meeting the council approved the 2025 annual updates to the service-and-assessment plans and assessment rolls for three PIDs. Council adopted ordinances to approve the annual updates and the collection of 2025 installments for:
- Lagos Public Improvement District (Ordinance No. 794) - Manor Heights Public Improvement District (Ordinance No. 795) - Rose Hill Public Improvement District (Ordinance No. 796)
All three annual-update ordinances passed unanimously on the night’s vote.
Speakers on PID items included Christian (DPFG), Tally Williams (Metcalfe Wolfster & Williams), Andrea Barnes (P3 Works), Assistant City Attorney Veronica Rivera, and multiple council members.
