Response to the Valley News June 18, 2023 Article

This is in response to the Valley News article “West Lebanon development plan still stuck in park” published on Sunday, June 18, 2023.

What is now before the City is the 3rd attempt in as many years to ask the City Administration to assist on economic development, riverside recreation, and public transportation enabling infrastructure at River Park in mutually beneficial ways. It was first proposed in 2020 when we offered them land to build a new West Leb Fire Station in response to a the request of the Fire Chief and City Manager. The City Manager rejected this, and then released confidential financial information in a public forum.

It took multiple rounds of proposals and ultimately the intervention of the State of NH Bureau of Economic Affairs to get the City Manager to support a TIF at River Park in ways similar to what the City is doing in downtown Lebanon and at the Airport. This occurred when we were competing against the City for a prospective life science tenant.  

The City Manager unilaterally rejected the recommendation of the 2021 West Lebanon Revitalization Advisory Committee to utilize TIF in West Lebanon the same way they are employing it in downtown Lebanon. 

That’s why I’m going directly to the Council (who is the only body with the legal authority to make a decision about a TIF), to ask the Council if they want to reconsider a comprehensive West Leb TIF now.

The City’s suggestion that the ball is fully in my court ignores the Framework for Public Private Partnership we proposed to the City in March of 2022. I am not the Planning Department, I am a property owner proactively proposing solutions.

City Hall will not invest in supporting local developers the same way they do in efforts to attract out-of-town developers elsewhere in the city? They spend staff time and taxpayers money advancing projects like Spencer Street, the City Hall Parking Lots RFP, and Airpark Road to seek developers. 👋

Have any other private property owners benefiting from the City’s two TIF districts and infrastructure been asked to pay for and/or perform the work necessary to create them?

The City’s resultant suggestion to hold the entirety of the River Park property as collateral means it is not a TIF, and would make it impossible to finance each phase of the River Park project if the City holds first lien on the property. 

We are appealing other burdensome conditions the City has already imposed upon the project that affects our ability to finance each phase of River Park in similar ways.

The new Planning Director’s continued suggestion– now to the newspaper– that we have objected to supplying the City with required contractor information is patently false. Our Appeal is about requirements by his department that are outside of their own rulebook, inaccurate, and in some cases just made-up. (you can read the staff report and draw your own conclusions).

The City’s latest action to put the building permit in limbo is beyond the authority of their own ordinances. Tomorrow we will file supplemental information to the Appeal Board showing that the Staff has withheld information from the Board, and is attempting to reject even hearing the appeal on a matter of “timeliness.” That is a staggeringly ironic double-standard given that they didn’t bother responding for 68 days to the initial memo on the matter, and we are now into the 7th month of resultant delays. 

And so we’re clear: they threatened to revoke our building permit while we were trying to move their pipe out of our foundation.

They can give as much lip-service as they want to the Valley News about supporting River Park, but the record– which we have made public and will continue to do so– proves otherwise.

How is anyone reasonably expected to invest time, energy, and money in West Leb when the City is constantly causing delays and changing the rules of the game as they go?

We have continuously proposed ideas and solutions towards the execution of River Park and to benefit the broader revitalization of West Leb. We recently proposed 10 ways the City can utilize tools readily at their disposal to provide assistance. It goes to help off-set the cost escalations we’ve incurred due to delays the City has caused.

The recent success of the LOH Hootenanny at River Park which attracted over 575 attendees to the waterfront at River Park is reflective of our vision for West Leb.

The Planning Board, City Council, and Appeal Boards now have upcoming opportunities to make decisions in support of River Park.