News

Pushback starts on Seventh Avenue tax expansion

Seventh Avenue Advisory Board President Carson Calton listens to City Manager John Connet during a meeting of the Seventh Avenue Advisory Committee..

By Bill Moss, Published: October 26, 2014

The Seventh Avenue Advisory Committee got a preview last week of what may be in store if the Hendersonville City Council acts on a recommendation to expand the Seventh Avenue tax district boundaries.

Joe King staged a one-man taxpayer uprising during a meeting of the advisory panel on Monday night at the historic train depot.
King's hardware and equipment rental store at 610 N. Grove St. is among the properties that would be subject to the 12 cents per $100 valuation tax if the City Council agrees to jump U.S. 64 and expand the district boundaries as far south as the old Grey Hosiery Mill on Grove Street.
King recently cleared a lot behind his store, an action that committee members agreed had improved the area.
"I feel like it's been one of the more noticeable improvements," King said. "That was done with private funds. It was not a committee. When you're talking about raising taxes, you're talking about taking from a property owner money he might use to improve his property. Taxes are a disincentive. How is making it more expensive going to incentivize people to re-energize Seventh Avenue."
Based on the current value of his store, King would pay $630 more per year in city property taxes.
Joe King speaks to the Seventh Avenue Advisory Board.King's challenge to the advisory committee and two City Council members in attendance — Steve Caraker and Ron Stephens — set off a long discussion about the value of the Seventh Avenue tax district and the city's longer range plans to revitalize the distressed commercial and residential area from Duncan Hill Road to U.S. 64.
Caraker told King that the tax and a potential companion action to overlay the area with an Urban Redevelopment designation could lift all properties. By making Seventh Avenue an Urban Redevelopment Area, the city could acquire and sell property, provide incentives for development, issue bonds and bulldoze blighted buildings.
"If I improve everything around you, that's going to make that property more valuable," Caraker said.

Seeking property owner buy in

The Seventh Avenue Advisory Board, which the City Council created from the old nonprofit Historic Seventh Avenue District board, includes property owners who have been paying the tax since the district was created.
Two of those members, Dennis Dunlap of Dunlap Construction and Carson Calton of City Tire, said the city had improved the street with better lighting. The City Council has committed to other street improvements, expected to be in place starting next year starting in the 300 block.
Consultants from the School of Government in Chapel Hill recommended that the city expand the district by 36 properties, doubling the taxable value to $15.5 million. The expansion would generate $9,200 a year in property taxes.
"From that aspect, the (new tax district) funding is not going to be nearly what the city would potentially put in," Calton said.
The city will notify property owners, hold public hearings and openly debate the question.
"I think this is important for two reasons," Stephens said of the boundary expansion. "Certainly the tax increase is nice but I think even more important is the investment of the people in the process. If we don't bring them into the district, I don't think they'll be involved. They're going to get benefits from this. The whole area will."
The council members and Seventh Avenue board tried to assure King that neither had made a decision on the tax boundary expansion.
"If you think we're going to pull the trigger on anything shortly," Caraker said, "you're mistaken."
"You're focusing on the tax and I understand that," Calton added. "That is one small part of it."
"That's the reality of it," King responded. "The rest of it is kind of wait and see."

Calton elected president

Board members said there are signs of revitalization along Seventh Avenue. Park Ridge Health bought the old Four Seasons Cinema property for a medical campus. Southern Appalachian Brewery last week purchased the property it had been leasing on Locust Street. And the developers of the Grey Hosiery Mill have asked to be in an expanded Seventh Avenue District, Caraker said.
The reconstituted board elected Calton as president, Dunlap as vice president and Jim Kastetter as secretary. City Finance Director Lisa White will serve as treasurer and City Manager John Connet or his designee will serve as assistant secretary to keep records.
The board also decided to give up the Seventh Avenue Bazaar, a fall festival that had been operated by Tara Ledbetter and volunteer Terry Ketcham. When her job as director of the Seventh Avenue district was eliminated, Ledbetter became the city's public information officer. Ketcham said the festival was a lot of work for a profit this year of $1,000. The board agreed to allow the Henderson County Crafters Association to take over the festival beginning next year.