<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0neTF8_0vjdTdMK00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0neTF8_0vjdTdMK00" width="780" height="439" ><figcaption>Arnold Mayor Ron Counts, left, and City Administrator Bryan Richison at the Sept. 5 City Council meeting in City Hall. Tony Krausz photo</figcaption></figure>Arnold Mayor Ron Counts said he is trying to repair a rift between the city and some residents over an abandoned road project.On Sept. 19, Counts asked City Council members to table a resolution that would reaffirm the cancellation of the Arnold Parkway road project. The resolution also outlined how a 1-cent sales tax collected by the Arnold Retail Corridor Transportation Development District could still be used to purchase property that owners in the area that had been targeted for the road project want to sell. In addition, the resolution outlined a smaller road project that would connect Hwy. 141 and Michigan Avenue, which runs through the Water Tower Shopping Center.The Arnold Parkway road project that has been scrapped would have connected Hwy. 141 to Richardson Road.Council members voted 7-0 to table the resolution. Ward 4 Councilman Gary Plunk was absent from the meeting. When a resolution is tabled, a vote to ratify it is either postponed following further discussion or it is abandoned.Counts also announced Arnold would hold a public meeting on Wednesday, after the Leader deadline, to allow city staff to explain what a Transportation Development District is and the history and purpose of the Arnold Retail Corridor Transportation Development District (ARC TDD).“I think letting people know what the truth is, is the answer,” Counts said. “There is so much misinformation out there. I think this (Wednesday’s meeting) will lay out what it (the ARC TDD) is. I think the truth about what is going on will help the city and residents move forward. That is my hope.”Sarah Lurkins, who helped organize the Citizens Against the Construction of Arnold Parkway group that opposed the Arnold Parkway road project and started petitions to force recall elections for all Arnold elected officials, said she was happy the resolution was tabled.“I am happy the resolution in the form that it was drafted is tabled because it was garbage,” she said. “The reason I think it is garbage is because a resolution regarding the TDD has to be carried out by the board members of that TDD, not the City Council.”The city had planned to use revenue generated by the ARC TDD to fund construction of the two-lane, 2-mile-long road between Hwy. 141 and Richardson Road, which would have cost an estimated $75 million. Arnold officials said the ARC TDD would have needed to acquire 38 homes, multiple businesses and a portion of the Water Tower Place Shopping Center to build the road.The ARC TDD was established in 2008 to fund infrastructure to support the construction of the Arnold Commons shopping plaza and renovation of the Arnold Crossroad shopping plaza. The ARC TDD collects a 1-cent sales tax, mainly from businesses in the Arnold Commons and Arnold Crossroads shopping plaza, but some from the businesses in the Water Tower shopping plaza.Members of the Citizens Against the Construction of Arnold Parkway, a group of more than 3,000 residents, have said the ARC TDD should be dissolved because it was created to make payments toward a $20 million bond debt, which has been been paid off.The Water Tower Place Shopping Center owners filed a lawsuit on Aug. 12 to stop the road project and to dissolve the ARC TDD, but the owners’ lawyer put the lawsuit on hold Aug. 14 and the city of Arnold has not been served the lawsuit, according to court records.However, city officials have said revenue from the ARC TDD’s sales tax also may be used to pay off bonds issued by the Arnold Crossroads and Arnold Commons tax increment finance (TIF) districts.The resolution that was tabled said that when the ARC TDD was created in 2008, the first project it listed to fund was a connector road between Hwy. 141 and Michigan Avenue.That connector road project was never started, though, City Attorney Bob Sweeney said on Sept. 19.The tabled resolution also said the ARC TDD’s sales tax would still be used as the funding source to purchase property to sell in the Key West Estates subdivision, which is made up of Harrys Lane, Christy Drive, Big Bill Road, Ridge Drive and Lone Star Drive. The resolution said only property that owners wished to sell would be purchased, and no property would be purchased in the Water Tower shopping plaza or south of Church Road, which was considered the southern leg of the abandoned Arnold Parkway road project.Counts said he wants the council to consider two resolutions regarding the Arnold Parkway road project, one saying the city no longer is pursuing the project and another about the ARC TDD.“I didn’t want to get the two different issues mixed up,” he said during the Sept. 19 council meeting “That is why the council on Wednesday night is going to hear all about the TDD, how it works and how it operates.“At the following (Oct. 3) regular meeting, you are going to see two resolutions. One is going to be a resolution that we are not going to do the parkway. I know how folks are going to vote. We are going to do away with it. It is already resolved. The other part is to do away with the TDD. Without the TDD money, none of this could happen.”If those two resolutions are passed, he said people’s questions and concerns should be put to rest.Counts also said any decision council members make would just be the first step in deciding the ARC TDD’s future, adding that the ARC TDD has its own board of directors that would need to vote on its future.According to ARC TDD documents, the board is made up of Counts, Plunk, Community Development Director David Bookless and City Treasurer Dan Kroupa. City Administrator Bryan Richison is the ARC TDD’s executive director, but he is not a voting member of the board.“I am happy that the mayor is willing to open up and have a meeting with whoever would like to attend to educate folks on the (Arnold Retail Corridor Transportation Development District),” Lurkins said. “I’m happy that he hinted (on Sept. 19) that there are plans to dissolve the TDD. He has never said that.”Ward 2 Councilman Bill Moritz said he will not be able to attend meetings when the council is asked to vote on the ARC TDD’s future but would oppose dissolving the ARC TDD.“There are still road projects to be done that feed into that ARC TDD,” he said. “If it is a matter of two resolutions with one to stop the road project, I would probably have to go along with that. If there is one about throwing out the ARC TDD, I am absolutely opposed to that idea. I think that shouldn’t happen. We need to keep that source of funding.”Jessica Bess, who helped form the Citizens Against the Construction of Arnold Parkway, said the ARC TDD needs to be dissolved. She also said the group would end its efforts to force a recall election if the ARC TDD ceases to exist.“Without the ARC TDD being dissolved, there is no way to move forward,” she said. “If the ARC TDD is dissolved and the 1 percent sales tax is repealed, then 100 percent yes, (we would end the recall petition).”Read previous coverage on the Arnold Parkway project:</div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

City Council to vote on ending Arnold Parkway project, TDD

Arnold Mayor Ron Counts said he is trying to repair a rift between the city and some residents over an abandoned road project. On Sept. 19, Counts asked City Council members to table a resolution that would reaffirm the cancellation of the Arnold Parkway road project. The resolution also outlined how a 1-cent sales tax collected by the Arnold Retail Corridor Transportation Development District could still be used to purchase property that owners in the area that had been targeted for the road project want to sell. In addition, the resolution outlined a smaller road project that would connect Hwy. 141 and Michigan Avenue, which runs through the Water Tower Shopping Center.