CLEAR LAKE SHORES — The same residents who successfully killed a city’s plan to take on debt without voter approval have submitted a petition to kill the city’s economic development corporation’s plans to borrow $1.4 million to develop a town center.
Former Mayor Katherine McIntyre said she had collected 180 signatures on a petition opposing the corporation’s plans to fund the same project that residents opposed with a petition earlier this year.
The corporation wants to develop the town center to restrict development at the city’s entrance and block unattractive strip centers and big-box retailers from moving into the city’s prime real estate.
The city will hold a public hearing on the proposed project at 6:30 p.m. today at the Clear Lake Shores Club House, 931 Cedar Drive.
McIntyre also led the opposition to the city’s plan. Although state law required the signatures of only 5 percent of registered voters to kill a city’s plan, the law demands 10 percent of registered voters, 116, to sign a petition to force the economic development corporation to call an election. The city has to validate that the signatures belong to registered voters.
McIntyre said she opposes the corporation’s plan to take on debt without voter approval because the plan lacks details, timelines and specific information about how the costs were determined.
The corporation plans to retire the $1.4 million debt in 15 years with sales tax revenue. The corporation expects interest rates could be as high as 8 percent, but that estimate is conservative and based on the idea that bonds funded by sales tax are slightly more risky than bonds funded by property tax.
The small island city, which funds itself through sales tax revenues, had planned to issue $2 million in certificates of obligation, a form of debt that does not require voter approval, to pay off loans the Clear Lake Shores Economic Development Corp. secured to buy land on FM 2094 for a town center. The city also planned to use the certificates to build sidewalks, pedestrian trails, a $300,000 city plaza for the Clear Lake Shores Farmers’ Market and a nearby parking lot for $200,000.
The economic development corporation plans to leverage the money with a grant the city received from the state to repair hurricane-damaged streets. The money would be used to build sidewalks, pave roads, install lighting, landscape the town center, create a city plaza and build a nearby parking lot.
The economic development corporation would not use the funds to pay off its existing $1 million loan.
