a discussion ensues

Part of my objections to the Corradino Group is that they used 2008 property figures, which were considerably higher than todays current values. The property in the Springs had dropped 28.6% in the past year, according to Zillow, and is anticipated to drop another 14.5 % by the end of this year. Those figures and projections must be considered when figuring the taxable values and revenues of the properties under consideration; plus the mitigation fees are also based on the higher figures. I am not at all sure about this pressure to do it NOW. I have not seen or heard anything from the County that would indicate there is any deadline involved here. I am all for increasing our commercial tax base, but NOT at the expense of inadequate diligence having been done, and additional risks for us entailed. A poster a couple days ago detailed a 2 million dollar cleanup that Doral had to do AFTER they had annexed. I would hate for US to incur such a cleanup too. Doral even had a lot more pollution info than we currently have, KNEW it was a risk, and still they rolled the dice- and lost. We should learn from their mistakes. Dr. Mel P. Johnson

prop values trending down

The mitigation fees were 386k as proposed, but Gym said the County was leaning toward doing away with any and all mitigation fees as a general matter of record. Whether that will actually come to pass is another whole question. The 386k would have to be subtracted from the hypothetical 2.3 million, leaving a hypothetical net of 2 million. The City Manager read from a DERM report that revealed there are 27 openly polluted sites currently in some form of remediation by the County. The proposed areas under consideration are 1352 acres, or 2.11 square miles, and includes 250 residents. A cop who works out there says there are frequent burglaries of the warehouses. The City Manager says there is a 150 million discrepancy now between his numbers for the property values and Corradino's. He also said the property values can fluctuate, which is true, but they are fluctuating DOWNWARD now and, like residential property values, are expected to continue downward for at least the next year. Residential property values in MS have dropped 28.6% in the past year, according to Zillow, and are expected to continue to fall another 14.5% in the next year, nationally. The 2008 property values were considerably higher in 2008 and represents an artificially high number from which these numbers are based. Use the assessed property values in January 2009 to get a clearer idea of what these areas are currently projected to bring in, and plan for them to fall further, because they will, like property values everywhere. Dr. Mel P. Johnson