Spring City Borough Council Discusses Land Development, Historical Landmarks

The Spring City Borough Council met for a regular meeting Monday night despite reports of a causing the meeting to be canceled.

The agenda wielded a from councilman Donald Shaner, which revealed the progress of the search for a new police chief, which is still pending.

Other important items included two presentations by councilman Mike Hays, which proposed and discussed terms of bringing in the National Registry of Historic Places and the Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) Program.

"The common theme these two items share is local economic development," Hays said.

Hays went on to explain the advantages of historic places designation to certain areas of town, saying if Main Street, for example, was tagged, it could attract outside tourists and help the local businesses out. He said the designation could even be applied to the Schuylkill Trail.

According to the Historical Museum Commission, the official status on the registry does not affect property owners or mandate public access to designated properties. Hays further stated that the status designation would not restrict properties to "too many mandates."

"[It] helps bring positive attention to town," Hays said, citing Phoenixville as an example.

President Lou DiGuiseppe raised a few concerns with the program, giving the example of the Rittenhouse Tavern in East Vincent, which cannot be renovated into a new restaurant because of a similar "historic place" designation.

"The place is just sitting there rotting, because they can't do anything with it," DiGuiseppe said. "My only question is where are we going to put this?"

Hays said the location could vary.

"Spring City is a historic area," said Hays. "I spoke with Bill Brunner (of the historic society) and he said this has never been done before. He would be interested in seeing how this would work."

DiGuiseppe still wanted more information.

"What is this going to do to tie our hands?" he said. "If East Vincent gets their way and creates their downtown, it would kill ours. I'd be interested in it, it would be nice to have those signs on 724 about historic landmarks, but what is it going to do for us?"

Hays said he would meet again with Brunner and come up with a more succinct plan for the next meeting on Sept. 6.

The LERTA situation was similar in the sense that the community could designate a certain zone in town. However, under the program, all businesses (commercial and retail) and residencies would benefit off of a five or 10-year tax abatement.

The abatement would start out with landowners receiving a 100-percent tax abatement on county, school district and property taxes. Over the course of the next 10 years, landowners would then pay 10-percent more each year. It was also noted that if a property changes ownership, the abatement continues as planned and benefits the new owner. Another important fact, according to Hays, is that "only the new improvement or addition is eligible for tax abatement. The original structure and value is taxed as normal."

In order to enroll in the program, all properties in the designated zone must not have "shovels in the ground" and must be willing to go under a large renovation (not just routine maintenance). Spot zoning does not apply and an overlay of zoning must be tagged to the designated zone(s). Phoenixville, East Pikeland and Schuylkill Township have all adopted this program.

The first LERTA occurred in 1977 according to Chester County Economic Development Council CEO Gary Smith.

"It's a great program," Smith said.

Bob Grabus, the development advisor for the council added that the Spring City borough could use this program to do something that gets the town on the map and makes people want to stop in town.

"What makes Spring City unique?" Grabus said. "You guys have a historic borough. East Vincent has the Jones Motor property. You have to find a way to make it work."

The borough council will also reconsider the topic at a later time. Resolution 2001, which is an advertisement for bids for the 2011 Streets Resurfacing Project, was passed during the meeting, as well.