Committee recommends deferral for Arcadia, forwards multiple tax-abatement renewals to council

The Crown Point City Human Resources and Economic Development Committee on April 6 recommended that the city council defer a personal property tax filing for Arcadia Cold Storage and forwarded a slate of abatement renewals and annual reports for council consideration.

Attorney Ben Ballou, who said he will represent Arcadia, asked the committee to defer the Arcadia personal property filing because the facility did not begin operations until March 1. "They've agreed to engage me, and they're asking for a deferral," Ballou said. The committee approved the deferral by voice vote.

The committee also reviewed and recommended to council a package of renewal abatements, including a D&L item listed as 619 (year 10 of 10), a year seven of 10 item for a property on Thomas, PK Property (year eight of 10) and Core-X 105. A motion to recommend the presented renewals passed by voice vote.

Attorney Decker asked the committee to send a favorable recommendation on three related annual reports; that recommendation passed. The committee accepted a withdrawal requested for an item associated with Attorney Ten Cate after the presenter said it was not cost-effective to file paperwork for the 10th year.

The committee approved two properties under Carrie Adams (listed as L R D M Ventures LLC at 530 North Indiana Avenue and 400 North Indiana Avenue) for forwarding to council, and it also approved a list of 18 annual reports submitted by Attorney Dan Zmudzinski covering eight property owners. Zmudzinski said the property owners have worked to keep properties in "substantial compliance with their statements of benefits."

A city staff member summarized program metrics during the miscellaneous portion of the meeting, saying the abatement program "has created over 550 jobs in the community, last year having a payroll of over $31 million and an assessed value of all the properties over $55 million." The same staff member said the city will begin using a program called Civic Serve to provide historical performance metrics for abatements, allowing council members to view jobs, assessed value and other indicators over multi-year periods.

Staff also noted that resolution numbers were assigned this year to previously approved items (including Arcadia and Core-X) so those numbers can be referenced on future statements of benefits and renewal paperwork; the original approvals were handled through the RDC and an earlier council meeting where resolution numbers were not assigned at that time.

Votes were taken by voice; individual roll-call votes were not recorded in the committee transcript. The committee adjourned after approving the motions to forward or accept the items discussed.

Votes at a glance: the committee approved (by voice) the Arcadia deferral; recommended the slate of renewal abatements to council; recommended Attorney Decker's three items; accepted Attorney Ten Cate's withdrawal; recommended two LRDM Ventures renewals; and recommended approval of Attorney Zmudzinski's 18 annual reports to the council.

Next steps: the items recommended by the committee will be considered by the Crown Point City Council; the transcript did not record council action or specific resolution numbers for all items.