County: No TIF for grocery in Planeview

Cleon Fields was not happy Wednesday that Sedgwick County commissioners blocked plans for a grocery store in the Planeview neighborhood where he lives.

"That's messed up," said Fields, 52, who said he has had five strokes and lost most of the use of the right side of his body.

"I can't drive, but me and my cane would have walked right over there," he said, pointing to the vacant lot at Pawnee and George Washington Boulevard where the grocery store was planned.

Like many residents of Planeview, one of the city's poorest neighborhoods, Fields relies on family members who live across town for the occasional trip to Checkers or Dillons markets.

The Wichita City Council had approved two special taxing districts to help developer Rob Snyder build the store.

But on Wednesday, a unanimous County Commission voted to block one of the taxing districts — and with it, potentially the entire project.

At issue for the county was a tax increment financing — or TIF — district, which would have diverted any increase in property taxes from building the market to help pay for some of the development costs.

Similar districts have been used to provide millions of dollars in subsidies to developers participating in the city's efforts to redevelop downtown.

In Planeview, the property tax increment would have generated $403,800 toward the estimated $2 million cost of developing the Sav-A-Lot store.

Because taxes would be diverted from city, county and school district coffers, any of the three agencies can veto the tax district by finding that the diversion would adversely affect that agency.

The County Commission made that finding Wednesday, going against its staff's determination that the district would not harm the county.

"This would not hinder county service delivery," said Troy Bruun, the county's deputy chief financial officer.

Commissioner Gwen Welshimer said she was torn about the project and appeared to change her mind about the tax district during the meeting after hearing from the public. She said she wanted to see progress in Planeview.

"I have great concern for the people who live there," she said. "I've knocked on those doors for many years, and I know what's behind those doors. You can leave that place in tears.

"I'm concerned that we can put TIF districts in wealthy areas and yet we are so anxious to deny it to a neighborhood like this. It puts me between a rock and a hard place because I am not a TIF advocate."

Commissioner Kelly Parks voiced the same hesitation as Welshimer.

"It's a gut wrench," he said.

Like a few other speakers, Shirley Koehn told commissioners she could find everything she needs at Super Del Centro, one of the ethnic grocery stores along South Hillside she recently visited.

"Then maybe you should," Welshimer told Koehn, who opposed the TIF district.

Koehn said the district would give Snyder an advantage over the owners of those stores, whom she called entrepreneurs.

"They'd be asked to help subsidize Sav-a-Lot," she said.

Such talk was infuriating to Al Rose, a disabled and retired United Methodist minister who lives in Planeview and serves as secretary of the neighborhood association, Planeview United.

"There are 8,000 residents in this area and a significant number of those have no transportation," he said.

The stores referenced by Koehn are all "small specialty markets," he said.

"If you want to buy Asian spices, that's where to go," he said.

In Planeview, "groceries for the month are bought at QuikTrip and the occasional trip by cab to the grocery store," he said. "How obscene is that?"

That's confirmed by Planeview resident Crystal Lewis, a mother of seven children who doesn't have a car.

She said she spends at least $100 a month at a Kwik Shop store at George Washington and Oliver and relies on family members to occasionally take her to the grocery store.

"Most of the people out here don't have cars and it (Sav-A-Lot) would have been really good because it's in walking distance," she said.

Some speakers at the county meeting, who were against the project, said TIF districts amount to "corporate welfare" and that the city should talk to the county before proposing such a district.

But City Council member Jim Skelton, who represents Planeview, said he thinks the county should have been more communicative.

"I wish they would have called me... before they rushed to go out and kill this," said Skelton, who is running against Welshimer for a seat on the commission. "They brought the plan to me, that neighborhood, they asked me to support it."

He said he plans to meet with the neighbors and Snyder to try to figure out a way to salvage the project.

Greg Ferris of Ferris Consulting told commissioners he was working with Snyder on the project and had told him "it doesn't make any sense for him businesswise. He's doing it out of concern for residents."

Ferris said the lot in question is vacant, which means it's bringing in hardly any tax revenue for the county right now.

Commissioner Dave Unruh said he believed that Snyder, who did not attend the meeting because of another commitment, "does have the best interest of the community in mind."

Snyder declined to comment for this report.

Late Wednesday, the city and county were at odds over how the city could proceed if it wants to go forward with the project.

County officials said the city could create another tax-increment financing district that wouldn't include the county, or try a different way to finance the project.

But the city's director of urban development, Allen Bell, said the county's vote means the city must terminate the proposed district within 30 days of receiving formal notice of the commission's vote.

He said under state law, any substitute tax-increment district would still need agreement from all the local taxing jurisdictions, which would include the county, city and USD 259.

This story was originally published October 7, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "County: No TIF for grocery in Planeview."