Widewaters/Columbia County: Press Coverage

To the editor:

The Columbia County Chamber of Commerce is opposed to the Columbia County IDA providing tax incentives to the Widewaters Greenport Commons project. On behalf of the 875 members of the Chamber, we ask that you do not to grant Widewaters their request for tax relief that is currently under your review.

The chamber feels the role of an IDA is to increase private investment in their jurisdiction that creates new job opportunities, retains and stabilizes the existing employment base, and generates added tax revenues through increased economic activity. An IDA does not generally find retail projects eligible for financial assistance unless the following are true:

The project is a retail destination that would qualify as a tourism attraction, such as Cabelas, Bass Pro, or an outlet mall.
Quality of Life Retail Projects that consist of cultural and/or recreational facilities which are retail, but add to the quality of life in a jurisdiction.
Projects which if not provided assistance by the IDA would otherwise locate to another area.
The project will make available goods and services which would not be available locally if not for the project.

It is our opinion that the Widewaters Greenport Commons project fails to meet any of the typical requirements listed above. The Chamber feels that it would be unfair to other businesses and not in the spirit of the IDA to give the project incentives at this time. Widewaters is already under construction and should not be counting on the incentives to make their project viable. They stated they were not going to ask for incentives. The only reason they can at this time is that the state allowed the rules against retail qualifications to sunset.

We believe that there are good reasons why this type of development did not previously qualify and ask that the Columbia County IDA adopt their own rules about this type of retail project qualifying for IDA benefits.

Widewaters has signed a contract with their primary tenant Wal-Mart, which will shift their business from one side of Route 9 to the other leaving an empty building that may potentially harm neighboring businesses.

Significant emphasis should be placed on whether the project will preserve or increase the existing number of private sector jobs, as the project will most certainly create additional demand for public services such as police, fire protection, water and sewer loads, and traffic congestion. Tax relief for Widewaters means the additional demand for services would have to be financed by our current business base and residents.

We feel approving the Widewaters request will be detrimental to local businesses. The Chamber will continue to support progressive business development that is in the best interest of the businesses and residents of Columbia County.

David Colby
President
Columbia County Chamber of Commerce

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