Concord Township’s trustees recently voted to create the community’s second residential improvement district, which will apply to 40 parcels in the Villas of Canterwood development. The RID will provide the township with additional revenue sources to use on specific projects. But Riverside and Mentor school officials expressed concerns over the financial impacts to their districts, as the RID extends into both districts and will give them a smaller share of tax revenue from developing lots. The township has said that the 10-year RID will not change tax rates for property owners. As homes are built on the parcels and property values increase, 75 percent of the taxes on that increased value will go to the specified township projects and 25 percent will be distributed to taxing agencies like school districts and the county general fund. The township said that it could use the funds generated by the RID for construction work on Fire Station 2; infrastructure, including water and fire protection systems; infrastructure improvements at Concord Hills Park and an addition to Concord Town Hall. According to Township Administrator Andy Rose, the township estimates that the RID will generate $160,000 to $165,000 per year for those projects over its 10-year lifespan. Township residents and school officials provided feedback on the proposal at a Sept. 4 public hearing. Riverside Schools Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Gary Platko said that the district would face “a direct, negative financial impact” from the RID, adding that the district opposed Canterwood and future RIDs. According to Platko, the district estimates that it will lose out on more than $85,000 in additional funding each year from the Canterwood RID and $320,000 each year from the Ivy Ridge RID approved earlier this summer. He said those figures assume that the properties will be fully developed and use Riverside’s estimate of what the county auditor will determine the increased valuation to be. The amounts will “ramp up and ramp down” for more than 10 years since the construction process will take time. “While this is less than 1 percent of Riverside’s annual operating budget, this is real money, money that could be used for classroom teachers, school safety officers and capital improvements,” Platko said. He added that Riverside is currently deficit spending. He said that while it will be a few years before the district needs to place an operational levy before voters, it will need to do so sooner with the deferral of tax revenue growth. Mentor School Board member and Concord Township resident Lauren Marchaza wrote to the trustee board in a statement read by Rose. Marchaza wrote that the 75 percent, 10-year RID would cost Mentor Schools $1.3 million in revenue. She said that would be equal to the costs for one or two teachers. “While it is true that the yearly impact on us would be about .12 percent, that adds up when we are experiencing no growth in our revenue to begin with,” her letter stated, as read at the meeting. “Any loss in revenue adds an adverse impact and only gets worse when inflation increases.” The trustees spoke in favor of the RID before voting to pass it. “I felt it’s our responsibility as elected officials for this community to do the best for our community, and if we have tools available to us and we don’t look at them and we don’t look to use them, I think that we’re failing to do our job,” said Trustee Morgan McIntosh. “And I realize that some people are going to look at that and say we’re not being fair to the schools,” McIntosh added. “And I can respect that argument, I can respect that opinion, and if I was on the other side of the table I might feel the same way, but we have the legal authority to do it, it’s something that I feel is necessary.” He said he also considered the “low percentages” of impact to the school budgets, the “meaningfulness of what this does for our budgets” and the fact that Canterwood is “targeted towards residences that are very unlikely to have very many children.” Trustee Amy Lucci said that while schools are important to the township, it has “limited opportunities for other funding mechanisms” and needs to consider other needs as well. Trustee Carl Dondorfer mentioned the need for the community to fund capital improvements for first responders, adding that equipment costs have increased in recent years. “A common theme from many of the residents was, the (trustee) board needs to look at other financial streams of revenue to fund the township operations outside of additional taxing burden on the residents,” Dondorfer said. “The schools and definitely safety and other services that the township provides — they have to be maintained, and we have a duty and obligation as stewards of the township to make sure that we can do what we can to adequately provide the necessary services for our residents,” he added later.