TIPP CITY — Monday evening the Tipp City Council voted on a resolution that would authorize the City Manager to enter into a Community Reinvestment Area Agreement (CRA) with Northpoint Development, LLC. for industrial development at 375 E. Evanston Road.

Developers have made agreements with the schools for a 100% tax abatement period, the developers will also make payments to the schools in lieu of tax dollars to the schools. There will also be revenue sharing from the city and the project is anticipated to create 350 jobs in the next five years.

Mayor Mike McFarland has already had multiple individuals contact him interested in purchasing industrial square footage in the area upon the approval of the CRA. Multiple citizens came forward with concerns about traffic in the area and potential leans against Northpoint Development LLC.

Kathy Bowan, of Michaels Road, Tipp City, brought her concerns about the 23 active leans against Northpoint Development since 2019 for non-payments to contractors that she found while conducting her own research.

“Please step back, take a look at this company before you let them come in here and start working with our construction guys,” Bowan asked of the council.

Vivian Davis, of North Third Street, spoke out on her concerns about traffic on the roads surrounding the proposed area for the warehouses and would like the city and the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to conduct a traffic pattern study before approving the resolution.

“They need to look at the wear and tear on the roads. I don’t care if it’s four lanes or five lanes, if you have increased truck traffic you’re going to have roads that are going to need to be repaired or paved more frequently, which is a cost I think needs to be looked at,” said Davis.

Matt Gaston, a representative from Northpoint Development, attended the meeting to address citizens comments and concerns.

“I just wanted to address a couple comments that have been raised. A traffic study will be done during the site planning phase, which will be the next step … in regards to lean waivers, we have 40 million square feet of construction across the country and we don’t get payments out from our lenders unless those lean waivers are gone. I know there are other companies named Northpoint, but I don’t think we’d be able to build anything if our actual company had waivers,” said Gaston

“It’s my understanding that this is just the first step in the process and that there’s a lot of things that have to go back to planning boards,” said Director of Finance John Green.

The resolution passed in a 5-1 vote. Council member Joanna Pittenger was the singular ‘no’ vote on the resolution due to the negative correspondence heard during Monday’s meeting as well as her lack of faith that the city can handle the traffic that would come with the approval of this resolution.

In other business, City Council:

• Approved an ordinance to amend the refuse collection fee to reflect the bid submitted by Republic Services Inc.;

• Rejected an ordinance to amend the comprehensive land use development plan that would change the parcel located at 44 Kinna Drive from a commercial to an industrial node;

• Approved an ordinance to amend the schedule of fees to update residential electric extensions;