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Council waives city building permit fee for Heman Drummond training center
Summary
The Jasper City Council approved an economic development agreement that waives the city building permit fee for the Heman Drummond Center for Innovation, a project the city attorney said will cost in excess of $50 million and is expected to be conveyed to the Walker County Board of Education.
At its May 20 meeting, the Jasper City Council voted to enter an economic development agreement with the Walker Area Community Foundation that waives the city's building permit fee for the Heman Drummond Center for Innovation, City Attorney Robson said.
The project is expected to be a "state of the art training facility with a spending in excess of $50,000,000," Robson told the council during a public hearing, and it "will not generate revenue, so there is no sales tax to abate," he said.
Nut graf: The agreement matters because the foundation plans to construct the facility and then convey it to the Walker County Board of Education. Because the foundation would build the project and not the school board, the city would waive the building permit fee; inspections are expected to be performed by the Alabama Building Commission rather than by city inspectors.
Robson said the agreement specifies that if the Alabama Building Commission inspects and approves the work, the city will accept those inspections as meeting city requirements. "The agreement says if it is inspected and approved by the building commission, that it will be in approved by the city," Robson said, adding that the arrangement is contingent on the commission actually conducting inspections.
City staff from public works, planning and building told the council they had reviewed civil and engineering drawings and had no objections to the agreement. After the public comment period produced no speakers for or against the agreement, the council authorized the city to enter the agreement by voice vote.
Discussion vs. decision: Council discussion focused on inspection responsibility and the fiscal effect of waiving permit fees; the formal action was approval of the agreement and authorization for the mayor to execute it. No sales-tax or property-tax abatements were provided as part of the city action; Robson said the project "will not generate revenue, so there is no sales tax to abate" and that the property is anticipated to be conveyed to the school board, so "there's not going to be any property tax to be paid."
The council made the approval following the public hearing and staff comments; the motion passed on a voice vote.
