HomeMy WebLinkAboutA037 - Letter from Steve Shuey in favor of tax abatement OEc a 5
CI o Y CLERK
�. CITY OF AMES,IQVIA
December 15, 2000
1408 Top-Hollow-Road
Ames, IA 50010
TO MAYOR TEDESCO AND MEMBERS OF AMES CITY COUNCIL:
I would like to take a moment of your time to give you my thoughts on the tax abatement of the Somerset
subdivision.
First thing I would like to say is that I was skeptical about doing a village concept because of the ideas that
take place in a village subdivision (closeness to street and property line). After being involved with it I'm
very excited that it is happening. I think it will be a great project for the city and the subdivision.
I would like to comment on the issue of the need for a tax abatement. I have estimated houses for both
Somerset and other traditional developments. Because of the need for extra architectural design in the
Somerset subdivision those houses can run from $5,000 to $10,000 additional. This makes it hard to sell
these houses when comparing to houses of the same size and style in other parts of the community.
I think we need help to keep the project moving along with the tax abatement so we can finish out the
subdivision. We want people to see what a village subdivision looks like so other developers may want to
look at doing a village concept. If this takes too long to move forward on this type of a subdivision
developers may be too skeptical about doing another village concept.
I also think we need the tax abatement on all parts of the subdivision (multi-family and commercial). If we
build all the residential and not the multi-family and commercial it will be an incomplete village; thus not a
true village concept.
I'm on the Ames Home Builders Board, and we tried to get a home show in Somerset this past year. We
were unsuccessful even though we had a very good incentive package from the developers which could
be passed on to the builders. We could not get builders interested because they were skeptical about
being able to move their product.
In closing I hope you consider the tax abatement for the entire subdivision so we can complete it. We
want the Somerset Village Subdivision to look attractive so it will be talked about not only here in Ames but
state wide.
Thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
Steve Shuey ��,