CODE NAMES

BY EDIE ZUVANICH

Some wonder if developers’ secrecy prioritizes industry over residents

Project Strat3, Project Maestro, Project Spear –– while the code names may sound like something from a 1980s-era spy movie, in Taylor and Hutto they signify major investments feeding the city’s tax rolls and revenue streams.

These are the kinds of names that surface on city agendas, planning documents and other government sources as smokescreens for companies doing deals with city halls and economic development corporations behind a veil of initial secrecy. Residents, however, have recently pushed back against the practice, saying it keeps them out of the loop regarding development that could affect their quality of life.

Government officials argue there is a need for anonymity and eventually the companies do go public.

“It’s to protect the company’s identity.

A lot of times they are publicly traded so

“Maybe this tells us we need to be a little more upfront with the public and give them more information.”

— PETER GORDON, HUTTO COUNCILMAN there is ramification on their business side,” said Ben White, president and CEO of the Taylor Economic Development Corp.

White said the anonymity serves several purposes, including protecting companies that may be relocating but haven’t announced it to their employees yet, and preventing land prices from being artificially inflated due to speculation.

Also, the industries may have city governments over a barrel by demanding secrecy.

White said refusing to sign a nondisclosure agreement required by a prospective developer could easily result in the investor going elsewhere. Competition among cities trying to attract high-paying jobs and increased investment is high.

BENEFITS CITED

A growing city needs industry to survive. Before Samsung Austin Semiconductor kick-started an industrial revolution in Taylor, the city could not afford to fix its aging infrastructure, officials said.

These new industries promise an economic boom in exchange for a code name — at least at the start, officials said.

The tradeoff is worth it, leaders said. In addition to increased property taxes, businesses may pay a sales tax on items they sell, a use tax on construction materials, fixtures and equipment they buy out of town, and a business personal property tax... and the city and county get a portion.

With more tax revenue coming in, Taylor has been able to perform roadwork and upgrade its water and wastewater capabilities, officials said. The city is also funding downtown projects and looking at building new facilities.

The story is similar in Hutto, which has also attracted major developments and has a large capital-improvements project list based on its increased tax revenues.

Taylor and Hutto both have master plans and land-use policies in place that section off the city into areas intended for residential growth, commercial growth, industrial growth and mixed-use areas. They also specify park land and civic spaces and have made an effort to maintain the character of existing neighborhoods by limiting the types of building and size of lots that can be added.

NOTEVERYONEISAFAN

Some land designated for future commercial or industrial use border on existing neighborhoods, in empty fields surrounding established residential areas.

This is the case in Taylor’s District 1, where a parcel designated for a future employment center has been bought by Blueprint Data Centers under developer BPP Projects LLC.

The company intends to build a $1 billion data-center project with an electric substation on the property.

District 1 is one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, a traditionally low-income area largely populated by Black and Hispanic families. Here, people live on land they inherited from their parents and grandparents, often raising children in the same house they grew up in.

“I used to run all over that field when I was a kid. Me and my friends would be outside all day just playing all over the neighborhood. Everybody knew everybody. We were a tight community,” said Pamela Griffin.

Griffin and her neighbors are fighting a move by the city allowing the data center to be built in a field abutting the backyards of homes at the edge of her south Taylor neighborhood.

She said the community is several steps behind on the fight because they did not learn of the project until it came before City Council June 26 for a public hearing and zoning-change approval.

By then, under the cloak of nondisclosure agreements, the city had already agreed to incentive deals and the investor had bought the property.

“They were calling it ‘Project Sam,’” Griffin said. “If I ever saw anything about a Project Sam I would have thought it was about Samsung, not something in our backyard.”

Officials note stories about the project were featured in local media.

Residents began calling on city representatives, the mayor, media outlets and a legal consultant to see what could be done to stop the industrial behemoth from changing the character of their neighborhood.

They have asked officials why the data center will be located so close to a neighborhood and why residents didn’t receive earlier notification.

Blueprint officials said the land is the best choice because that is where an electrical supplier is building their power source.

FULLTRANSPARENCY

Code names are generally dropped once the incentives for the development are approved and the land is under contract.

At that point, followers of business news receive details about the development. A public hearing that includes notifying nearby property owners follows later, along with any required zoning and variance approvals.

By then, there may be little that property owners can do to halt what they see as an unwelcome industrial neighbor.

In Hutto, one recent project bucked the secrecy trend with a name that told everyone a Sprouts Farmers Market grocery store was interested in coming to town.

“Project Sprouts” became the talk of the town after a social-media post by Mayor Mike Snyder broke the news on July 14, directly after a Hutto Economic Development Corp. meeting.

Sprouts will be an anchor tenant in a 14-acre development in north Hutto, at the corner of Texas 130 and U.S. 79. The project will have about 10 tenants overall, according to Adam Zimel, a representative of developer Endeavor Real Estate Group.

Snyder’s post broke the 500-comment mark within just a few days, and by the July 17 City Council meeting, all of the elected leaders on the dais seem to have spoken with some of their constituents about whether a Sprouts was wanted.

Hutto approved an incentive package for the developer to move forward with the plan and bring in Sprouts as a tenant.

Zimel said that without the incentives, the project would not have gone through. He said his contract for the land included a contingency for him to abandon the contract if the incentives weren’t approved.

Many Hutto residents said they felt like their voices were heard — this time — concerning the direction of city growth. The ability to discuss a development issue with constituents before voting on it made a big difference, according to Councilman Peter Gordon.

“It gave a whole different dynamic to this because then we could go to the public and say, ‘Hey, we’re looking at a Sprouts. What do you think?’ And we seemed to be able to get a lot more clear information from the citizens on what they really want,” Gordon said. “Maybe this tells us we need to be a little more upfront with the public and give them more information so they can give us the input because I think it worked out better than normal.”

Snyder said Sprouts approved having the name released and didn’t demand secrecy.

“The question we currently ask is, ‘Can we keep this a secret?’ and usually the answer is ‘yes.’ I think the question people should be asking is, ‘Should we keep this a secret?” Snyder said. “A data center shouldn’t be a secret. The name maybe can be a secret, but I don’t understand why you would keep the industry a secret.”

Secrecy to prevent land speculation? That’s the developer’s problem, according to Snyder.

“Don’t come to a city saying you want to build on 100 acres if you don’t have 100 acres under contract. Put the land under contract, then come talk to us. I think that’s lazy developing, personally,” the mayor said.

Snyder said Hutto also has an ordinance requiring a special-use permit for certain types of industries, including data centers. That gives the city the power to determine the suitability of a business for a piece of land, regardless of zoning, and provides additional protection for residents.

“Nobody wants that stuff by their yards. High-power transmission lines, that devalues your property. We specifically put that in there to protect homeowners,” Snyder said.

Hutto has become a hub for data centers. There are several different phases of construction and hints of another currently in negotiation.

Meanwhile, White said data centers are among target industries for Taylor EDC.

The EDC worked with regional and local community members and business leaders to develop a list of the types of industry they want to bring to Taylor. Chief on the list: semiconductor-related businesses, advanced manufacturing and construction materials.

“We know that the citizens would not want ... something that would be extremely harmful to the community and we don’t want any of those projects either. We want quality projects that are going to create quality jobs that are going to be good corporate citizens for Taylor,” White said. “There is going to have to be some trust there.”

“We want quality projects that are going to create quality jobs.”

— BEN WHITE, TAYLOR EDC