"Ihlan still hasn’t grasped the concept"

Roseville City Council member Amy Ihlan still hasn’t grasped the concept that the $40 million subsidy she keeps referring to does not come into existence until there is a redevelopment project in place. She also fails to understand that the TIF is used to reimburse the developer (not Costco or WalMart), for the cost of roads, cleaning up the pollution, building roads and sewers on the site.

She would like you to believe the development community can’t wait to redevelop 80 acres in Roseville, even though this opportunity has been available for the last twenty years and this is the first developer to step forward and assembled a major portion of the site.

If you accept Ihlan’s idea that we should be requesting for proposal for this site, I believe her request would look as follows: Dear development community: Roseville has 80 acres of polluted land with substandard building for you to redevelop. The city neither owns or controls this site. There will be no financial assistance. You will be expected to clean up all of the pollution and not build within a 1000 feet of the park. You will also demolish all of the buildings, build all of the roads and sewers. You will have to acquire all of the land. You will then be asked to build a project that is suitable to my standard and the Friends of Langton Lake Park. You should know we really don’t care if it is economically feasible, as long as we think it has the right components and generates no new traffic. Also you should know the developers whose project we just turned down owns a major portion of the site. Oh by the way, the last developer was sued over his proposed development. I am sure all of you developers can’t wait to spend between $100,000 to $300, 000 to prepare a proposal knowing full well only one of you will be selected.

Yes, Ms. Ihlan, I am sure the development community can’t wait for this opportunity.

Dean Maschka
Roseville City Council member

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