A regional system is seen as a way to attract desirable commercial firms.
It’s no secret the city of Ashland has big plans for 840 acres of mostly undeveloped land it annexed six years ago that stretches north to Columbia Regional Airport.
After the annexation, the city re-zoned 400 of those acres west of the airport for light industrial use. So far, the only new development in the area is a warehouse.
Because there is almost no wastewater-treatment capacity for new development, Ashland isn’t as attractive as other cities when it comes to winning businesses.
“Expanding the system is important,” said Ken Eftink, Ashland’s city administrator. “It’s critical for the growth of the community.”
Regional Economic and Development Inc.’s master plan lists designing and creating a regional sewer system for southern Boone County as the top priority for Ashland when it comes to expanding business.
“For the future of the area, the sewer issue is a big component of what they want to do,” said David Meyer, the marketing director for REDI. “Residential, commercial, industrial, any of that type of development, you’re definitely going to have to have a solid sewer system with a capacity. To this point, that has been a limiting factor.”
The question then becomes, will there be a regional sewer system and where might it go. The answers have the potential to shape growth in southern Boone County.
A steering committee, formed in September, has narrowed an original list of 18 potential sites to five.
The site and service area for any new system will become vital factors for the future development of the area. Because of the limited wastewater capacity of Ashland’s wastewater treatment lagoon, the city is also counting on a regional system.
“If they could put together a regional sewer line that would create a sewer trunk line that would be a big step up,” said Carl Freiling, a Realtor in Ashland. “It used to be roads. Now, it’s sewers. Wherever you build the sewers, that’s where development will occur.”
And the focus for Ashland’s immediate commercial development is near the airport.
The noise from the airport makes it undesirable for residential development, but in turn, makes it ideal for commercial or light industrial development, which aren’t affected by noise, Eftink said.
“You could look at anything from small manufacturing, to some large contractors that need a big shop space or distribution centers,” Meyer said. “It’s pretty open as far as types of business that can go there, again the limiting factor would be infrastructure.”
Brian Duffield of Duffield Construction is trying to capitalize by building warehouses at the Ashland Industrial Park. Although he hasn’t yet broken ground, he said he hopes that by early summer, he will have several companies renting the warehouses he plans to build on his 23 acres off Angel Lane near the Columbia Regional Airport. He said he imagines construction companies, plumbers, and heating and air companies will be interested in his prime warehouse space, located strategically between Jefferson City and Columbia.
“Really, the sky’s the limit as far as what you could do out there,” he said. “You can have contractors, warehouse space, you can have anything out there.”
The treatment system Duffield will use for his industrial park can handle 2,900 gallons per day. That may seem like a lot, Eftink said, but it is only enough to support the employees in the offices. While that system could be expanded, it would never be able to accommodate a large waste-water producer such as a food processing plant.
The zoning on the land, airport planned industrial, allows for a wide range of businesses such as warehouses, offices or construction companies.
“With airport industrial zoning, we’re looking for airport-compatible, but not necessarily airport-related (businesses),” Eftink said.
According to the zoning regulations, developers must present a detailed plan to Ashland’s Planning and Zoning Commission. The airport manager also gets to review the plans.
Ashland wants larger commercial or light industrial development as the tax generated from commercial property is much higher than residential sector rates. For tax purposes, commercial properties are assessed at 32 percent of the appraised value, while residential properties are assessed at 19 percent.
Furthermore, by increasing the amount of commercial development, the city gains a tax base to support the city, without gaining extra expenses that residential development incurs, such as schools.
“You can’t send someone a bill for driving down the road,” said Tom Ratermann, general manager of the Boone County Regional Sewer District. “Sales taxes have to cover those things. The only way to get sales tax is to get business that generate sales tax.”
Despite the potential financial benefit, Ashland doesn’t have the capability to increase the infrastructure on its own. As a result, the city has been counting on an eventual regional wastewater system to meet future needs and provide the capacity for growth.
Even though voters in November approved city proposal to borrow money by selling bonds to expand its treatment lagoon’s capacity to 490,000 gallons per day, that expansion is still seen as a much-needed but short-term fix. Eftink said before the vote that failure of the bond issue could have forced the city to halt all new development.
“The thought is that as the demand increases, we look at the regional facility to come in and increase the potential for additional development,” Eftink said.
While the wastewater facility would be vital to serving any businesses that eventually build there, it is also important in attracting businesses to the area.
“They want to know about the infrastructure. That’s one of the check marks,” Meyer said. “They’re going to go where the infrastructure is already in place.”
According to Mike Collins, a real estate agent in Ashland, besides the sewer issue, the price of land has also kept commercial development subdued.
“In the mid-’90s, there was a lot of residential growth. Prices on lots got a little expensive,” Collins said. “People had high expectations for what their land was worth.”
This has caused potential sellers to keep their prices high. And, without any sense of urgency to sell, he said, sellers can stick to their set prices.
“In Columbia or Jefferson City, you could buy commercial property at the same price or lower,” Collins said.
There is also the issue of what people in Ashland want to do with their community regarding potential industrial growth.
“I think there’s always interest, the question is, what do you have to offer? And what do you have that would set you apart,” Freiling said. “And I think, in general, what Ashland has is it’s a great place to live.
“While you’d like to have a broadening economic base, you don’t want to ruin the quality of life. You don’t want to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.”