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Developer outlines 112-unit Waterdine plan, seeks TIF and school compensation agreement
Summary
At a June 18 Coventry Local Schools board meeting, developer counsel Jason Dodson described a 112-unit Waterdine development and a tax-increment financing (TIF) package to fund ~$15.5 million in infrastructure and asked the district to consider a 55% compensation formula that he said would yield about $528,000 annually to the district under the proposal.
Jason Dodson, counsel for the project developer, told the Coventry Local Schools board on June 18 that the proposed Waterdine development would include about 112 housing units—lakefront homes, smaller single-family homes and roughly 30 townhomes—and that installing required water, sewer and road infrastructure would cost about $15.5 million.
The developer is proposing a tax-increment financing structure (TIF) split into incentive districts covering phases of the project and a compensation agreement so the school district would receive 55% of the taxes it otherwise would have collected; Dodson said that equates to approximately $528,000 a year for the district under the proposal. He said that without public assistance the developer would likely build a much smaller project (about 28–30 homes) that would generate approximately $408,000 annually for the school district—roughly $120,000 less per year than the TIF-backed plan.
The presentation described how service payments in lieu of taxes would flow into a city-managed TIF fund and be used to repay infrastructure costs, compensate the school district, and leave a small share to the city. Dodson said the developer would pay 100% of on-site infrastructure costs (roads, gutters, sidewalks and the utility extensions) and that the seawall had been removed from the infrastructure package after city and school concerns.
Dodson also discussed how incentive districts and the TIF term would work: the TIF window would run for the 30-year incentive period beginning when each home is first picked up for tax purposes, and earlier phases would start sooner than later phases. He said the developer’s analysis shows the proposed structure produces about $10 million in net present value to the developer against roughly $15.5 million in infrastructure costs, meaning the developer would still be responsible for several million dollars in nonrecoverable costs and remediation.
Board members raised questions about jurisdictional effects—whether water and sewer extensions would cross into the neighboring city of Green—and Dodson clarified that most of the development lies in New Franklin and only a small corner touches Green; those lots would be handled administratively. He also cited recent legal guidance and a court decision limiting developer-payback arrangements and referenced Ohio Revised Code section 5709.40 when describing statutory limits on TIFs and school consent requirements.
The developer said the city council was meeting that evening and might act on a related development agreement; if council approves, Dodson asked the school board to consider a compensation agreement the developer and city were proposing and said he would provide copies of the compensation agreement to board members on request. The board did not vote on any TIF or compensation agreement that night; the presentation was informational and board members said they would review the materials and follow up with questions.
What happens next: Dodson asked the board to review the compensation agreement if the city council approves its part of the development agreement. Board members and staff requested a copy of the compensation agreement and additional detail on timelines, fiscal modeling and the precise boundaries of any incentive districts before taking any formal action.
