Hooper council gives conceptual OK to Terra Strata plan but raises funding, infrastructure concerns

Hooper City Council members discussed a rezoning and development proposal from Terra Strata and told staff they were willing to give a conceptual thumbs-up while requiring further work on maps, a developer agreement and financing before any formal approval.

The discussion focused on whether the city should endorse the planning commission's recommendation in concept while changes to the general plan, map and ordinance language are completed. Council members repeatedly said they could not legally rezone the property at the meeting because the general-plan/map changes needed to be on the agenda and completed first.

Council members and staff told the developer to expect further conditions: a change to the general plan and map to allow the proposed housing and to clarify how the proposed commercial area must relate to the highway; a development agreement to define infrastructure and phasing; and additional work by staff and by Malcolm (city planning staff) to draft the needed ordinance and map language. The council asked staff to return a path that would allow a final approval at a later meeting if the required changes are made.

Much of the debate centered on financing the infrastructure the project would require. Council members said a proposed community reinvestment arrangement (CRA) that would capture tax increment to pay back infrastructure raises fiscal risk for the city. Council members and staff discussed:

- A lift station cost repeatedly described by speakers as roughly $2,000,000; council members said the city does not have that money on hand. - The CRA proposal presented to council shows a payback period of 24 years in some figures; speakers noted other taxing entities often do not remain committed for that full period and said typical participation they had observed was closer to 10— years in practice. - The draft CRA would allocate portions of utility tax, sales tax and property tax to pay the district's obligations; council members warned that property tax revenues allocated to a CRA could be significant for other taxing entities and that the school district had not agreed to the 24-year scenario.

A council member said the city's share of incremental revenues would be limited and that the city would likely subsidize early years while development matures. Members urged the developer and other stakeholders to consider alternative financing or developer-side contributions rather than asking the city to assume large up-front risk.

Councilmembers emphasized that the project could proceed in concept if developers and staff produce a developer agreement and clear financing tools that protect the city's fiscal health. Several members said they would be comfortable signaling conceptual approval with conditions so the developer would not spend extensive time on final engineering until the council's expectations were clearer.

Separately, council agreed to move public comments to immediately before the Terra Strata action item and to limit non-hearing public comment to 30 minutes for that meeting to allow members to hear community feedback relevant to this agenda item.

The council did not take a formal recorded vote on rezoning at the meeting; no final rezone or developer agreement was approved.