CHANUTE — A Neosho County commissioner is pushing back on complaints from Chanute officials after plans for a potential housing project fell through.
County Commissioner Nicholas Galemore said he “takes offense” to the lack of correspondence from the city after the county rebuffed efforts for a Reinvestment Housing Incentive District in Chanute, the Chanute Tribune reported.
The move forced Chanute city commissioners to rescind a decision earlier this month to grant an RHID for a proposed 32-unit apartment complex.
An RHID uses tax revenue to finance public improvements for housing development.
The proposal would have unlocked about $2 million in state funding, but county leaders objected, citing potential loss in property tax revenue if other developers were to build on the same property, the Tribune reported.
The designation required sign-on from the city, USD 413, Neosho County Community College and the county. All but the county did so.
Galemore — who the newspaper noted is owner of another apartment complex in Chanute — said approving the RHID could cost the county as much as $770,000, because an RHID would have given a 25-year tax break to developers, the Tribune said.
Additionally, a property tax break would affect the county more than the city, because Chanute does not assess property taxes.
But that figure assumes the property — currently an empty lot on 28th Street, behind Walmart — would have other development in its place, the newspaper continued. Without other development, the empty lot generates about $220 in annual property tax revenues for the county.
Darin Luebbering, the developer working on the RHID project, told the Tribune he is back to square one in his quest for RHID funding.
He plans to apply again, but must again get state approval, and then approach the various taxing entities for their blessing, the newspaper reported.
