Impact of Stillwater Crossing Development

ANSWER:

Quick Answer - The Stillwater Crossing development will potentially help the District out in the long run, but in the next 10-20 years, it will likely not pay for the impact on the schools and will bring in potentially 857 (worst case scenario) additional kids to the district (442 housing units times 1.94 kids per household) requiring even more investment by the district into infrastructure including a potential addition to the existing school or a separate K-3 facility. 

The school had no say in approving the provided tax incentives to the developer, as the Village utilized a pre-1994 community reinvestment area (CRA) economic development tool, which does not require school sign off. 

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The development is a good thing for the Village of West Milton and the District in the long run, but it must be made clear how the District and the Village will assure that there are enough funds to support the impact of adding that many children to our already crowded school buildings.

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Long Answer - 

The Stillwater Crossing development is proposed to have a south side (which is already under construction) and a north side (which is where the old golf course was located).  Details of both proposals, and their impact on the school is below. 

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Stillwater Crossing Development Plan

Stillwater Crossing - South (Currently Under Construction)

• Randall Residences - 80 units

• Senior Cottage Quads - 84 Units - Centerstone Homes

• 134 Single Family Lots - Ryan Homes (Phased)

• 6 Commercial Outlots

  • Gas station, bank, medical, etc.

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Stillwater Crossing - North (Future Development)

• 146 Single Family Lots - Developer TBD

• 162 Rental Unit - Centerstone Homes

• 7 Commercial Outlots

  • Grocery Store, drug store, two restaurants, YMCA

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Financial Impact of Stillwater Crossing

The Village and Developer provided estimates to the school related to the impact.  They noted the proposed phasing of the projects over the next 30 years and provided a compensation analysis. 

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Generally, the Village and the Developer note that the School District will receive additional funding through their Earnings Tax to cover the substantial shortfall to the property taxes.  The estimated revenue does not cover the estimated costs, but either way currently the Earned Income tax can only be used for capital expenditures and not operations. 

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In the Village / Developer analysis it is noted that even using numbers that are not documented, they estimate the school to have an annual shortfall of between $140,000 to $2,500,000 per year due to the cost to educate the children in the development.  When using the actual numbers from the State of Ohio (see notes below), those numbers jump up substantially with just the north side having a shortfall of $1.4 million to $9.5 million per year once completed built-out. 

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The projections provided are not clear, and there needs to be continued dialog between the Village / Developer and the School District.  What is clear though from the projections is that the School District will not only be losing money from the development, but potentially a substantial amount per year.

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Notes:

• In their estimates they use an average cost of $5,500 to educate a child, which is well below the documented cost in Milton-Union of $9,085. (Search the data here).  

• In their estimates they utilized 1.50 students / home instead of the average for the United States of 1.94.  They also utilized a 0.47 student / rental home instead of the 1.94 average in the United States.  In total this reduces the total # of est. students by 255.