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Fairport Harbor Mayor Timothy Manross said he believes the village government works hard to promote the community as a good place to own and operate a business.
But Manross added that it’s a challenge to attract enough new businesses to generate a significantly larger amount of tax revenue for the village.
Manross discussed the village’s business environment in response to a resident’s question at a recent Village Council meeting.
Carla Riboczi asked Manross what the village government is doing to draw new businesses into Fairport Harbor, in an effort to alleviate the tax burden on residential property owners.
For Fairport Harbor to bring in meaningful amounts of new business tax revenue, the village needs to see more development of larger businesses with greater numbers of employees, the mayor said.
“It’s not going to be your mom-and-pop shops,” Manross said. “They’re not going to constitute enough of a tax base.”
For example, Manross said it would be nice if a new business would be established at the old DeNora Tech site at 625 East St.
“To either remove that building or put meaningful jobs there,” Manross said.
DeNora Tech is a worldwide provider of electrodes and coatings for electrochemical processes. The company used to operate a research and development center in the 625 East St. building, but the company moved the center to a location outside of the village.
“When DeNora was here in Fairport Harbor, I think the income tax alone was something like 40-some thousand dollars a year,” Manross said.
Development of Fairport Harbor’s waterfront also could help boost commercial tax revenue for the village, he said.
As an example, he mentioned the vacant land that will become available after the village soon demolishes its former Water Treatment Plant at 5 High St.
That property is located along a section of the Lake Erie shoreline that has often been touted as a prime spot for economic development.
“So take into consideration, that whole plot of land where that water plant sits right now generates zero dollars in tax revenue,” Manross said. “The minute something gets built there, that’s going to change the valuation of what that land is.”
Just west of the former Water Treatment Plant, at the northern end of Water Street along Lake Erie, the village also is aiming to construct a new transient marina.
Lake Development Authority is managing the development process and securing funding for all stages of the transient marina project. Estimated cost of the overall endeavor is $14 million.
The transient marina would be tailored to attract boaters from outside of Lake County for stays typically ranging from a day to two weeks, and not compete with local marinas in the county that serve long-term tenants.
Riboczi, during the recent council meeting, also asked Manross if the village has determined how much revenue that the marina would generate once it’s built.
Manross said he didn’t have an immediate estimates of future marina revenue.
“We could probably pull some numbers together, talk to the Lake Development Authority to see what those projected numbers might be from a community of a similar size,” he said.
Councilman Anthony Bertone also noted that the shops, restaurants and other businesses in downtown Fairport Harbor would be an attraction for boaters who dock at the transient marina.
“You don’t go to the marina if there’s nothing to do when you get there,” he said.
In addition, Manross said village government might take another look at creating legislation for short-term rentals that are booked through services such as Airbnb, “to see if there’s any dollars we can extrapolate through the bed tax and stuff like that.”
Last year, Village Council was considering an ordinance to create short-term rental regulations.
But based on feedback from people who spoke for and against the ordinance at a public hearing, Manross recommended that council vote down the measure as it was proposed. Council complied with the mayor’s request.
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