Town Manager Grady Miller told an audience at the Liberal Ladies group in Fountain Hills that the town is no longer basing any of its long-range planning on development of the parcel owned by the State Land Trust.

“We believe that nothing will happen anytime soon [regarding development of the land],” Miller said.

Miller told The Times that when they held a kick-off meeting with the land planning consultants hired to work on the town’s General Plan update, they learned the firm had developed a study for the State Land Department for the approximately 1,300-acre parcel within Fountain Hills.

Miller told the ladies’ group the study estimated a per-lot cost of $300,000 minimum for infrastructure development. He elaborated in an email to The Times saying the cost could be as much as $500,000 per lot.

“That seems very high,” Miller said.

Information on what information was used in the study to draw its conclusions was not available for this story.

The land was initially purchased by the Ellman Companies around 2006 for more than $110 million. Ellman presented the town with a plan with approximately 1,100 to 1,200 residential lots for development. That was approved, but never developed as the company eventually defaulted and the land went back to the state.

Miller said as far as he knows there are no developers currently interested in the property.

Other issues

Miller’s presentation to the Liberal Ladies was based on his view of the five most important issues that the town faces.

The issues he outlined include many town officials have been discussing for several years as costs to operate town government continue to outpace revenues.

Miller insists, and many agree, that cutting costs is no longer an option; the town is operating at bare bones.

He continued citing a need for sustainable revenues and with voter rejection of a primary property tax the council will be considering a sales tax increase and a public safety fee in June after the budget is passed.

He also said rising costs are making it important to focus on public safety with the town having contracts with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement and Rural/Metro Corp. for fire and emergency medical services.

The contracts comprise more than half the town’s everyday operating budget, but Miller said they are still a good option for providing those services. However, he is being urged by some on the council to seriously study alternatives to those contracts.

The costs involved in keeping streets in good condition are also on the rise and Miller told the group they are having to carefully “triage” work on pavement maintenance. The money available annually does not go as far as the town needs.

Miller said the town is budgeting a facilities infrastructure fund to have reserves available for upkeep and future replacement of physical structures in the town. A study calls for $2 million a year to be set aside, but the town is having difficulty finding $1 million to allocate to the fund.

Another issue important to the town is attracting and maintaining talented and top notch personnel. Miller said the town has been very fortunate to have very good people go above and beyond over the past 10 years of fighting through the recession and slow recovery years. He said many on staff handled the work of two or three employees. He is hopeful they will find money to offer competitive wages as well as bring in new people to help bear the load.