Development tabled, city council votes for more time to decide

Development tabled, city council votes for more time to decide News Staff Tue, 03/12/2024 - 18:24 Image

• Developer Jon Anderson addresses the council. TRIBUNE PHOTO / NICOLE KIMBALL

Body

The decision to go forward with the development of the Anderson Towne Crossing will have to undergo a final vote.

The Mount Pleasant city council sat for four hours, listening to concerned residents, legal experts, and city officials. With the changes that the Anderson Towne Crossing would bring, many concerns were brought before the council.

The biggest issues brought up were the potential housing costs of the plan, job growth, tax liens, a new emergency care center and certain wording in the contract.

“This contract is very ambiguous. Zones should be established from the start and the assessment distributions should be known upfront,” said resident Jerry O’Connor. “Are there any areas within the development area which are excluded from the PID assessment? If so, housing and commercial lots will have these assessments levied upon them and make up for any that are in the exclusion area. Making property costs plus assessments plus HOAs or POAs fees eliminate any affordability. Westlake, one of the examples the developer has used as a reference, is a great example of exactly what I’m bringing up.”

Many also spoke in support of the development.

“There’s not enough housing in Mount Pleasant. We can’t attract labor to Mount Pleasant,” said Priefert CEO Bill Priefert. “We can’t get enough help is the problem. We’re doubling and tripling in Mount Pleasant, Texas, in the next few years, and we’re moving out of Mount Pleasant in the next few years, because of lack of labor.”

Developer Jon Anderson told the council the development meets all of the desires of the city’s growth plan that had been created.

“You’ve hired professionals to work on this, that have spent their time. They’ve had a weekly meeting for fifteen months,” Anderson said. “Your financial legal team has been in a meeting every week for fifteen months to determine what’s best for the city. To build an agreement that doesn’t have any risk for the city, doesn’t have any cost to the city, and there’s no way that the city can lose...Fifteen months worth of work is going into a development agreement that has been presented by y’all’s staff, our staff, y’all’s professionals, our professionals, to reach the goals of the city that have been set out by council.”

At the end of the session, the council made the decision to table the agenda item for the next meeting, in order to have more time to look over the details and re-negotiate terms in the contract with Jon Anderson’s company.

“I am very frankly, very upfront with everyone on my concerns on this. I have great full thought on this. I try to make the best informed, educated decision that I can for majority of the citizens, which is 16,000 people here in Mount Pleasant,” said Councilmember Tim Dale. “I’m very reluctant to do that.”

Dale voted to table the item.

“I’m gonna place a vote tonight because I know Jon Anderson, and I know how long we’ve worked on this and I know that we can clear this up because I want growth for Mount Pleasant,” said Councilmember Galen Adams. “And Jon has a passion for this, and I believe that we can get this finished up, and we can get this for Jon. Thank you for your push for Mount Pleasant.”