City desperate for industrial land

The city of Washington has no available industrial lots, and members of the city council say this is hurting the town?s prospects for development. City councilor Mark Kendall said at Wednesday?s work session that the lack of openings caused a Keota business to relocate to Sigourney instead of Washington. City Administrator Brent Hinson said the one thing every council member should agree on is the need to create more space for industry in the city.

?It?s nearly impossible to attract industry if you have no available land,? Hinson said.

Hinson said the Bartholow farm, a farm west of Elm Grove Cemetery that the city owns, is an ideal location for an industrial park.

?If we want to have any chance of developing any industrial lots at all in the next five years, this is about your only option,? Hinson said. ?This site already has all the utilities to it. The more time goes by, the more opportunities we miss.?

Kendall said he had firsthand knowledge of one of those missed opportunities.

?I had a client that was in Keota and their building burned down,? he said. ?They wanted to move to Washington, but one of the hurdles we could not get over was that we had no commercial land they liked enough to pay the price. They ended up in Sigourney, and probably spent $200,000 on their current spot.?

Kendall said the city needs to start putting away funds to use toward industrial expansion.

Hinson said the alternatives to building on the Bartholow farm would require the city to buy more land for upward of $25,000 per acre. The city paid approximately $12,000 an acre for the 126-acre Bartholow farm in 2010, part of which was used for the new sewer plant. Hinson said the city wouldn?t be able to sell the land for that much today.

The city built an access road from Highway 1 to the new sewer plant. Hinson said the city could begin marketing the property along the access road. Councilor Merlin Hagie said he agreed with the idea to develop the Bartholow farm. He said much of the land couldn?t be dedicated to residential housing anyway since it is within 1,000 feet of the sewer plant, which violates DNR regulations.

Councilor Bob Shepherd said he wasn?t fond of putting an industrial park on the Bartholow farm because the city already has an industrial park on the northeast side of town and he doesn?t want two separate industrial parks.

Ed Raber, director of Washington Economic Development Group (WEDG), said the lack of industrial land concerns him and his board of directors. He said the Bartholow farm is ideal for an industrial park.

?You already own the land and it?s near a wastewater treatment plant,? Raber said.

Raber said that close proximity to a wastewater plant is a selling point for some industries because there is less risk of encountering a backlog or broken pipe.

Shepherd said the council should be mindful that converting the Bartholow farm into an industrial park is still an ?expenditure? even though the city owns it. He said that ground is worth about $500,000. Raber said that a new industrial park on the site could raise its value to $8 or $10 million.

Hinson said the city wouldn?t have to develop the whole farm all at once. He said the city could set aside 10 acres on the western edge of the property by Highway 1 and see how quickly those lots develop. He said if that goes well the city could create more lots on the property.

Shepherd said he wants more information about what can legally be built within 1,000 feet of the sewer plant. He said if the land by the sewer plant cannot be developed as residential, then he would be open to putting industry there, although he said he?d prefer that industry locate within the existing industrial park on 12th Avenue.

The council discussed industrial expansion at its meeting April 18. A resolution to dedicate the income from the Bartholow farm (west of Elm Grove Cemetery) to an industrial development fund was not approved. Hinson estimated the farm income would be about $25,000 per year. Councilor Bob Shellmyer, who voted against the resolution, said he would only support the resolution if the industrial lots were to be on the Bartholow farm because he didn?t want the city to buy more land. Shepherd said he would not support a resolution that required the industrial lots to be built on the Bartholow farm.