Thursday, July 5, 2007

If It's Not Impact Fees, It's Something Else


If it's not one thing, it's another. You'll remember that a couple of months ago the local real estate developers were proclaiming the impending burden of impact fees to require them to pay for the sprawl they created would stop all development in Fayetteville. Bill Ramsey of the Fayetteville Chamber and Steve Rust of the Fayetteville Economic Development Council chimed in and claimed it would make Fayetteville even more "unfriendly" to developers. Someone sat on a UA report they commissioned that concluded otherwise. We have reached a point where we expect nothing else from the business booster brigade.

Well, it turns out that developers are having other problems besides the boogeyman of road impact fees, and it's not just in Fayetteville. Bigtime real estate developer Tom Terminella is fighting foreclosure proceedings against one of his developments in Springdale. It's not a result of impact fees, and it's not because of Fayetteville's reputation for being "unfriendly" to business. Sorry guys, that's not the problem here, but you can go ahead and pretend it is. No one believes you anymore anyway.

Metropolitan National Bank has filed a foreclosure petition
seeking $6.9 million loaned for Terminella's Grand Valley Ridge Subdivision in Springdale. The petition also seeks back interest and late charges. Terminella and his attorney Robert Ginnevan III have filed a counterclaim alleging fraud, negligence and breach of contract by the bank. Maybe those interest fees and late charges show that the bank is "unfriendly" to business and against growing the tax base.

Where is the Chamber of Commerce with a big press release? What do Bill Ramsey and Steve Rust have to say about this? Why haven't the real estate interests raised a $40,000 defense fund. Can't someone come up with a way to blame this on the Fayetteville Planning Commission and the City Council? It almost worked before.

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