Fitchburg council approves $9.8 million TID-backed Syncopation development on former quarry site

The Fitchburg Common Council voted May 26 to approve Resolution R-10226, authorizing a development agreement and up to $9.8 million in municipal revenue obligation (MRO) financing to help Fairchild Development reclaim and build on a former quarry infill site between Highway 14 and MM.

The council approved the agreement after hearing presentations from city staff, the city's municipal adviser and the developer. Keith Dah of Ellers, the city's financial consultant, told the council the developer presented detailed budgets, sources and uses, and operating projections; Ellers concluded the public assistance request was justified because of extraordinary site reclamation costs. The financing is split into two phases: $5.5 million issued after initial milestones and a $4.3 million issuance after later milestones, with provisions to right-size assistance to actual extraordinary costs incurred.

The Nut Graf: Councilmembers cited the site's unusual constraints'including contaminated fill, large buried concrete, and unstable soils from past quarrying'as the key reason public assistance was necessary. The project combines roughly 312 market-rate apartments (with the option to pursue workforce housing), a 119-bed continuing-care facility with Trilogy Health Services, about 34 single-family lots and about 40 townhomes, plus roughly 12,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space split across phases.

Ellers' analysis projected the fully completed development would produce an assessed value of about $104 million and roughly $1.88 million in annual tax increment for the city. Under the agreement, two-thirds of tax increment generated by the project over a 15-year term would be used to repay the MRO notes to the developer; the remainder would stay in the tax increment district for other projects within the TID boundary.

Public comment included questions about sequencing, compliance with the city's comprehensive plan and plan commission review, and potential long-term costs for municipal services. A member of the public urged the council to require a thorough accounting of the projected incremental costs to city services over the life of the TID; city staff and the developer said more detailed service-cost projections were not part of the financial assistance application but that the MRO notes are repaid only from increment generated by the project.

Developer Mark Fairchild said the application was a reduced, more feasible design after prior attempts to develop the site and that under the proposed financing the site would be self-sustaining: "That site will repay itself over time," he said, noting private and public infrastructure decisions that remain to be finalized (private vs. public roads and utility responsibilities).

The council approved the resolution by voice vote. The agreement includes standard conditions: issuance of MRO notes only after the developer submits actual costs for verification, staged milestone triggers for the two-phase financing, and engineering and permitting assurances. City staff said zoning and plan commission approvals remain part of the next steps.

What happens next: The development must proceed through the plan commission and site permitting. The first issuance of the MRO note is contingent on satisfied milestones and documentation of actual costs; the council will receive further staff reports as the project advances.

Speakers quoted in this article are drawn from council and meeting testimony: Micah (mover), Mike (city economic development staff), Keith Dah (Ellers municipal adviser), Mark Fairchild (developer), and public commenters who raised planning and fiscal concerns.