Let SUNY build it
The few remaining School Board members who still question whether a tax break for Wilmorite’s proposed Park Point project would be detrimental to our community explained their reasoning at last week’s Board of Education meeting. Holding fast to what I can only describe as “a tenth of a loaf is better than no loaf at all” stance, they pointed out that the 42-acre parcel owned by the SUNY New Paltz Foundation is currently paying no taxes at all. Under a PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) agreement, Wilmorite is projected to pay $100,000 a year in the early phases of the project, of which $66,000 would go to the school district. Given that Wilmorite is proposing to construct a $56 million, 700-plus-bed rental housing project on the site, under normal circumstances the real property tax in the early years would be approximately $1.5 million, with $1 million going to the school district.
In the near future, the School Board will be asking us to approve a multi-year loan in the form of a bond issue likely to be in the range of $75 million to $100 million. If Wilmorite were to be granted a PILOT by the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency (UCIDA), the Rochester developer would not participate with the rest of us in repaying that loan.
Another justification offered by Board of Education members reluctant to contact UCIDA and recommend against the PILOT is the assumption that very few school-age children will ever inhabit the rental complex. Wrong. One only has to look at the troubled Vineyard Commons rental development in Highland to see what happens when the financial goals of developers fall short. Vineyard Commons was marketed to the Town of Lloyd as an “adult only” complex renting only to individuals and couples over the age of 55. The project was approved largely because there was no opposition from the school district since it was assumed there would be no impact. Wrong. When the developer’s market projections proved false and they were desperate to fill units, they quickly resorted to renting to persons of any age and to families with children.
SUNY claims it needs housing for graduate and transfer students in order to meet its goal of becoming a “residential campus integrating living and learning.” If a private developer is permitted to build this housing, the developer will be able to rent to any demographic or age group it chooses in order to meet its profit margins. If it needs to expand beyond renting to college students, faculty and staff in order to make a profit, it will. The school district, the town and the village will then be left to deal with the unintended consequences. So let SUNY build it.
The New Paltz Police Commission estimated the cost of police services for the Park Point project at $12.5 million over 25 years. If SUNY were to build the development, SUNY police would be responsible for its protection and that cost would be borne by taxpayers state-wide, not just by the beleaguered New Paltz property owners. So let SUNY build it.
The New Paltz Central School District committee recently charged with gathering together all the facts regarding the proposed Park Point development may be this community’s best and last chance to finally get at the truth, the whole truth, about both the short- and long-range plans for this project.
Credit where credit is due
Thanks go to Roberto LoBianco, New Paltz resident, SUNY student and budding young photojournalist, for bringing Wilmorite’s 2009 seminar to my attention.
