Whitehall tables Fairway Cliffs development ordinances after crowded public hearing

Whitehall City Council opened a public hearing Tuesday on a proposed Fairway Cliffs residential development and on related tax-incentive measures, heard more than an hour of testimony from residents and proponents, and then voted to table three ordinances until March 18.

The measures the council tabled would create the Fairway Cliffs Community Authority (ordinance 9-20-25), approve a community reinvestment area (CRA) real property tax exemption application for Fairway Cliffs LLC (ordinance 10-20-25), and establish a Fairway Boulevard tax-increment financing (TIF) district (ordinance 11-20-25). Councilman Dixon moved to table each item; each tabling motion passed on unanimous roll calls of present members.

Why it matters: The measures together are the financing structure the developer is proposing to use to build roughly 50 townhomes and new parkland on about 11.5 acres around the Aetna and Fairway intersection. The ordinances would let city-collected property-tax revenue be redirected for a period to repay public infrastructure and to give the developer property-tax relief; opponents said the package shifts most of the expected incremental revenue to the developer and asked the council to require clearer, written commitments before any incentive is approved.

What council and the applicant said

Mike Shannon, attorney for the applicant, told the council the community authority is a statutory vehicle that would administer payments in lieu of taxes and related assessments and that the ordinance before the council only establishes that authority. Shannon said the TIF public hearing had to be delayed because notices to affected property owners were not sufficient and that the developer authorized bond counsel to prepare a draft development agreement to be shared with council and the public before a final vote.

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