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Show Parmington residents ask, 'Where's the RDA blight?' Golf Course. Lynn Summerhays, president of the Davis County School Board, told the council at last Wednesday's meeting he was concerned designating the land a blight area would hurt area schools. K mart would pay about $60,000 a year in taxes, $33,000 or 53 percent per-cent of which would go to schools. Schools would lose out on the tax revenues from the K mart development de-velopment by designating the land a blight area, Summerhays said, adding ad-ding he was speaking as a private citizen and not president of the school board. Green said the district has added over 2,000 students this year. The whole reason K mart and other developments de-velopments are coming here is because of this growth, he said. Summerhays told the council that county citizens were the most highly burdened in the state and property taxes were the only means available to build new schools to house the new students. "If tax revenues don't go to those kids we have no other alternative. I'd rather have K mart pay for property tax increases rather than increasing the the city is not trying to subsidize developers, but wants to build the infrastructure to generate more tax revenues. "Just as schools are feeling the pinch, we're feeling the pinch of providing services to a rapidly growing community he said. "We are not a wealthy communi- Green said this desire to broaden the tax base by bringing in more commercial development makes cities willing to do anything to get the revenue. Developers know that, she said, and so they play one city off against another trying to get the best deal. Blight designations are intended to alleviate the community from areas harmful and unfriendly to the community. But Green said the rules for designating blight areas are entirely too lax and are frequently fre-quently abused by RDAs willing to do anything to promote growth and increased tax revenues. Green contends the land simply does not qualify as a blight area. By MARK EDDINGTON Staff Writer FARMINGTON Where's the blight? That's what Nicole Green and other residents are asking ask-ing the city Redevelopment Agency about a plan the agency is considering consider-ing to designate 400 acres between Burke and Shepard Lanes as a blight area. Green is spearheading a drive to stop any further consideration of the plan, which she says is unnecessary because commercial development is coming to the area anyway. Green plans to address the school board next week and to circulate a newsletter informing others of the problem. By designating the land a blighted area, Green asserts the property tax that would have gone to the regular tax entities goes to pay for the upfront costs of the developer de-veloper instead and Davis County residents will have to make up the difference. The city council, meeting as the RDA, decided Wednesday to postpone plans to conduct a blight survey of the area or to incur any other expense, until holding a public pub-lic hearing and talking to landowners. lan-downers. The area includes the proposed K mart development and excludes area subdivisions and the Oak Hills burden on citizens," Summerhays remarked. Summerhays acknowledges the city faces a unique struggle building its infrastructure, but said "we have to decide what our priorities are. ' ' City manager Max Forbush said |