During the December Helper City Council meeting, a lengthy discussion was held regarding the possible approval of dissolving the Castle Gate Community Reinvestment Project Area. The discussion also involved possibly rescinding the interlocal agreement with the Helper Community Reinvestment Agency (CRA) for the project area.
Mayor Lenise Peterman explained that this came up as the previous agreement was tied to Tom and Cindy Lund at Castle Gate RV Park and all that was done was with the intention to help them. It was stated that is not common for these types of agreements to transition to new ownership.
The mayor then explained that in order to keep everything streamlined, the desire was to dissolve both the project area and the agreements in order to avoid issues regarding the continuation of the project. The new owner of the RV park is based out of California and, due to many reasons, the feeling was that the city was not compelled to honor the previous agreement.
Per Adam Long’s experience, who has been helping the city extensively regarding this particular project, it was indicated that CRAs do not transfer to new owners. It is not commonplace to have transfers and it was suggested that it is something that should not be done.
Councilwoman Malarie Matsuda expressed her concern with this, stating that she does not see that the purpose of the project has changed simply due to the fact that there is new ownership. She said that the wording in the agreement did not pertain solely to Tom Lund, but to the success of the RV park.
Councilwoman Matsuda explained to her fellow council members and the mayor that she did not feel that it was right for the council to make such a decision without informing the new owners. She did ask that the subject be tabled, but there were no echoing sentiments from the other council members, so the topic continued.
Councilwoman Amanda Wheeler then stated that she was under the impression that the agency helped new developments and when the city began helping with the RV park, it was due to the fact that it had been previously discussed in the beginning.
The council has since then been working backward to get the CRA approved and now that someone else has purchased the RV park as a fully functioning business, it changes the idea behind the project. Long then spoke, stating that once a new owner has purchased at fair market value, the agency has no way to justify its involvement unless the project changes substantially.
Following the detailed discussion, the CRA was dissolved and the agreement was rescinded, with the only opposition on the matter coming from councilwoman Matsuda.