Car dealers' departure hurts Marysville's budget
COUNCIL WORKSHOP: Public presentation of the concept made to about 60 city leaders and residents on Dec. 13.
COUNCIL TO APPROVE: Munchheimer's proposed project (and project budget under development): Jan. 15.
COUNCIL APPOINMENT OF PROJECT STEERING COMMITTEE:
January or February. Munchheimer is recruiting for this group.
CONSULTANT HIRING PROCESS:
February-July.
COMMUNITY KICKOFF MEETING WITH PLANNERS: August.
CONSULTANT PLANNING WORK, INCLUDING STEERING COMMITTEE REVIEWS AND COMMUNITY MEETINGS:
August 2013-April 2014.
COMMUNITY PRESENTATIONS OF PROPOSED PLAN: May 2014.
PLANNERS, STEERING GROUP PRESENT PLAN TO CITY COUNCIL:
July 2014.
A mid-year budget report and forecast presented during the Dec. 13 City Council workshop served as a kind of exclamation point emphasizing City Manager Walter Munchheimer's push for a dramatic Marysville commercial center overhaul.
The forecast incorporates losses from the recent flight of two new-car dealerships from Marysville.
But the full impact of a comprehensive Caltrans road project through the city, and debt on property the city purchased shortly before the collapse of the nation's economy will be difficult to predict.
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So too will be the expansion of the newly-renamed Rideout Regional Medical Center, which Munchheimer hopes will become a key focus of plans to attract new development in the city.
Work continues on a $48 million project to replace sections of highways 70 and 20 through Marysville, and is expected to clog traffic through the city's primary commercial corridors for more than a year.
The work is expected to be finished sometime in 2014, and includes improvements not only to pavement, but traffic signals, sidewalks and curbs and drainage systems — changes that could have a positive impact later.
But with the city's small businesses struggling to hold on, concern over the project's impact is palpable. At the northeast end of the city's highway corridor, the property Marysville purchased on B Street in 2006 for future retail development is used as Caltrans storage space.
The purchase of that 4-acre property — which Munchheimer's plan includes as part of the city's prime commercial real estate district around Ellis Lake — committed $3.5 million in bonds.
In August 2011, the City Council voted to defer payment on the property for an additional three years, in favor of an interest-only refinancing arrangement. The refinancing added about $1.2 million to the property's overall cost.
Annual payments of roughly $640,000 will be due from 2015 until 2036.
CONTACT Nancy Pasternack at npasternack@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4781. Find her on Facebook at /ADnpasternack.
