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Economic development official outlines project process; public commenter presses council on assessment answers
Summary
An economic development official walked the council through how projects and incentives are routed — including utilities checks and when the board becomes involved — citing Jarrett Foods in Leavonia as a recent example. In public comment, Bruce Stratton urged the city to provide answers about rising assessments and proposed exemptions.
An economic development official explained to the Franklin Springs council how business recruitment and local incentives work, describing the sequence from state site consultants to local review and the role of utilities and engineers before matters reach the board.
"If we can't handle the utilities there's no need to pass it to the board," the presenter said, describing a screening step used to determine whether a community can support a project. The official described common local incentives as tax incentives but said the authority has not offered many tax abatements recently, and that state incentives — such as employee tax credits — are often preferred because they produce larger savings for employers.
The presenter described a recent local example: Jarrett Foods in Leavonia, which renovated an existing building and created what the presenter described as more than 200 jobs without local tax incentives. The official said projects are routed to either the county or a city depending on property ownership and that the development authority often helps shepherd projects but does not unilaterally make final land-use decisions.
During public comment, Bruce Stratton urged the council to provide clearer answers about prior discussions over "opting out" and possible new tax exemptions, saying he had followed up several times over nearly two months and had not received answers to two major questions he raised. "I still don't know when I would actually hit something," Stratton said, pressing for information so citizens can judge policy changes.
The presenter offered to prepare and distribute a flowchart that outlines the development-review process for the public; the meeting record did not include a firm timeline for distributing that material or additional staff follow-up to the public-comment questions.
