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Council approves Cypress Gardens brownfield plan after developer, staff pledge stronger completion terms
Summary
Taylor council approved the Cyprus Gardens brownfield redevelopment plan after extended questions about sidewalks, reimbursement timing and developer guarantees; city staff said detailed terms (reimbursement agreement and completion obligations) will return for council review.
Taylor City Council voted to approve the Cyprus Gardens brownfield redevelopment plan after hearing a detailed explanation of how the project would be reimbursed and questions from council and residents about completion guarantees.
City staff and the developer said the plan is intended to allow tax-increment capture to reimburse developers for eligible cleanup and infrastructure costs. The city’s advisor explained the plan covers roughly $360,368 in eligible activity and that developers are reimbursed only after they have paid contractors and taxes are generated. “If they’ve written the check, they paid the contractors … they build one house, it’s not going to generate enough money to ever reimburse them the 300 and something thousand dollars,” the staff advisor said, describing why time frames and caps matter. The developer’s representative, Anthony LaDuca of MJC Land Investments LLC, told council the company has “certified funds” for sidewalk completion and is operating under a single LLC for its properties.
Several council members pushed for contractual limits to ensure unfinished lots do not remain indefinitely without sidewalks or required infrastructure. One council member asked that a clause require MJC to complete sidewalks on undeveloped lots at the developer’s expense if lots remain undeveloped five years after signing. Staff said that specific performance terms should appear in the reimbursement agreement or a related developer agreement rather than inside the statutory brownfield plan, and that the city will return with revised contract language at a subsequent meeting.
A member of the public questioned whether the ponds and underlying sites were truly contaminated; staff responded that the sites are primarily full of concrete and debris rather than hazardous contamination and therefore the ponds are not the central contamination concern. After public comment and back-and-forth about caps and timing, the council voted 4–2 to adopt the plan as recommended by the Taylor Brownfield Redevelopment Authority; council members recorded their votes in a roll call.
The immediate next steps identified by council: city staff and the developer will prepare or revise the reimbursement agreement to add performance and timing guardrails (including sidewalk completion language) and return that agreement for council consideration. The council opened and closed a public hearing on the plan during the same meeting.
