2019/02/19 - Mayor's Column: The Time to Capitalize is Now
“An Open Door to O’Fallon”
A Weekly Note from Mayor Herb Roach
O’Fallon has been blessed with good location, great schools, and excellent residents. These are only a few reasons why so many businesses have been attracted to this community.
While O’Fallon has experienced steady growth over its history, occasionally an opportunity has come along we were able to capitalize on. By leveraging those opportunities, this community has become a story of success. Events such as the construction of Interstate 64 and the HSHS St. Elizabeth’s Medical Campus, along with the continual growth of Scott Air Force Base, have galvanized O’Fallon’s future for the good.
We now sit on the precipice of another great opportunity that could propel the community into the future. I strongly believe that if you are not moving forward, you will fall behind. As such, over the past few months the City has been working with land owners, other taxing bodies and a developer to prepare the area near Exit 21 for development. We believe that the time to capitalize is now.
Gateway Commerce Center in Madison County has become the model of success for industrial development in the area. The center was started by TriStar Properties in 1998. It includes major employers such as Amazon, Proctor & Gamble, Walgreens, Hershey’s, and World-Wide Technologies. Nearly 6,000 people work in the center and it has an economic impact of over $1.3 billion. In addition, it generates approximately $6 million in property tax for the area’s school districts and other taxing bodies.
The founder of the Gateway Commerce Center, TriStar, is now proposing a development in O’Fallon on 200+ acres north Interstate 64, on the northwest corner of Exit 21. Early conceptual plans have included over 1.5 million square feet of construction in phase one. This is a very large development. For reference, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and medical office building is approximately 470,000 square feet.
This type of development can positively alter the future of the O’Fallon community, like other major projects like St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Scott Air Force Base, and construction of the Interstate. It has the possibility of creating additional development in the area’s remaining 1,300 acres.
In addition to the large amount of jobs and economic impact that this development could create, it has the potential to generate a significant amount property tax for our school districts. Preliminary scenarios calculate that TriStar’s phase one development could generate over $5 million in property tax for O’Fallon’s school districts over a twenty-year period.
This type of property tax generation could help the O’Fallon taxing bodies be less reliant on residential property tax. Which theoretically would help reduce the property tax you pay on your home. How is this possible you ask?
Every year, the various taxing bodies in O’Fallon, which includes the City of O’Fallon, Schools Districts, St. Clair County, etc. request an amount of dollars that they need to provide their services. This request is sent to St. Clair County, where they distribute that request amongst the taxable property in the taxing bodies’ jurisdiction. This is a very simple explanation of how property tax works, but the point is that if there is industrial or commercial development that is generating millions of dollars per year in property tax, that’s millions of dollars that the residential taxpayers of O’Fallon don’t have to pay.
As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open!