NEWSMAKERS BREAKFAST | By Mark Washburn
March 17. Growing pains are sharply felt in the pocketbook, Cornelius business and civic leaders were told Feb. 21, and relief is tricky to find.
While Cornelius continues to attract rapid growth and development, coping with the impact is often years behind and economically complex, experts said at the Newsmakers Breakfast at The Peninsula Club.
“Cornelius is an amazing place to live,” said Robby Carney, a first-term town commissioner, tech CEO and former regional economic developer. But there are consequences to the lopsided tax base in the town where 82 percent is residential, he said.
An analysis shows that each residential property, on average, costs the town $126 more annually in services than property tax yields. Conversely, he said, the average business generates $1,264 more in local tax revenue than it costs the city to serve it.
As new development spreads, government improvement of roads and other infrastructure can lag years behind.
It’s the traffic
Traffic, Carney said, is the No. 1 gripe about quality of life in surveys conducted by the town.
Adding to the burden on the roads, the group was told, about 90 percent of Cornelius’s workforce leaves the town each day for jobs. And 90 percent of the people who work in the town commute from other areas.
Cornelius continues to grow rapidly. Since the 2020 census, Cornelius’s population has surged about 6 percent to 33,100, according to federal estimates.
Impact fees
Cornelius Mayor Woody Washam, speaking from the audience, said that people expect developers to share the cost of growth.
“My most-asked question as mayor,” he said, “is why don’t you do impact fees? Our citizens want it.”
But as a result of a state Supreme Court decision, impact fees are difficult to assess under North Carolina law, and other remedies must be found.
Carney said he would favor allowing impact fees. “There are no silver bullets in life,” he said, “but that is about as close as you get.”
Tax base
Those who oppose commercial and industrial development in Lake Norman towns overlook their powerful contribution to the tax base, longtime Mooresville attorney Cliff Homesley told the gathering.
Opposition once mounted to the proposed Costco at Exit 36 in Mooresville because of the traffic it might generate, he said. But after the project went through, he said, the town’s tax collections soared.
And, Homesley added, the traffic impact was minimal. Most shoppers came, did their business, and drove away on I-77.
Other needs
Developers, too, are facing economic challenges of their own, said Drew Thigpen, developer of the proposed Cornelius Business Park off Bailey Road at NC 115. Materials and construction costs are climbing.
“Low-cost, fast-schedule work,” he said, “is not really happening right now.”
Affordable workforce housing remains in constant demand in the region, the audience was told, but it is not keeping pace.
One problem with creating affordable units is density, Carney said. Developers need higher property density rates to help cover the cost, but the community is opposed to higher density.
One key area of future development with higher density is the area around the new Atrium hospital being built on US 21, Carney said. There are about 60 acres around the medical center that will likely be developed as commercial property.
Carney added that the town is on the verge of about three years of road improvements in congested areas, which will be painful but eventually ease traffic problems.
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