From: Leota Childress
Sent: Tue Oct 20 08:39:41 2020
To: Jeff Roth [Custom Box Service, Inc.]
Cc: Dan Huff; Gerald Fisher; Mac Corthell
Subject: Re: Transportation SDC fees
Importance: Normal
Jeff,
Thank you for contacting me. I appreciate the way you have been following city council and asking good questions. You have a double stake in SDCs since you are a business owner and resident of Molalla.
As you can see, I copied city staff on this reply. SDCs are complex calculations that are beyond my area of expertise. I will stay in the loop as we go forward with clarifications you and others in the community are asking for.
You are always welcome to reach out to me and I appreciate you interest in our community.
Best Regards,
Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device
From: Jeff Roth [Custom Box Service, Inc.] <jeff@custombox.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2020 1:56:53 PM
To: lchildress@cityofmolalla.com <lchildress@cityofmolalla.com>
Subject: Transportation SDC fees
Hi Leota,
I hope your Thursday is going well.
I have some observations about the Transportation SDC discussion that took place at the city council meeting last night, and I wasn't sure where to send it -- so I'm sending you an email. Hopefully that is okay.
First I want to state how much I appreciate the detailed explanations that Public Works Director, Gerald Fisher, has presented at the city council meetings I have watched. With that said, I partially disagree with something he said at last night's meeting, which he also had stated back in April 2019 when the SDC increases were first discussed.
On both occasions, a city councilor asked Mr. Fisher about how Molalla's Transportation SDC fees compared other cities in the surrounding area (like Canby or Silverton); and his response was that since each city has different transportation needs, you really can't compare those costs. But if SDC fees are part of a greater plan for economic development, where the City of Molalla is hoping to attract businesses to build in our town, then it would be helpful to know how we compare -- especially when competing with cities that have higher populations and better access to freeways & highways (better potential for income for the business).
Looking at this from a business perspective, if my company has been selling our products at price 10% lower than our competitors, and then we decide we want a larger warehouse and maybe some new equipment; we can't just go out and triple our prices to pay for that -- nobody would buy our products anymore and we would go out of business. Yes, price increases are a part of doing business, but without knowing how your business compares to the competition, you are really putting yourself in a bad spot. I realize city government is not run quite like business, but the SDC fees are being assessed to businesses who are used to shopping around for the best price, and a fee structure that is out of line may be a deal-breaker.
I think it would be very useful to know how Molalla's fees compare to surrounding cities -- useful for city council members, and for the general public. I have tried to do an apples-to-apples comparison between Canby & Molalla, using published fee schedules, but I don't have enough information, or enough understanding of necessary calculations, to do an accurate comparison.
I think it would be very useful to see a comparison of total SDC fees between Molalla, Canby, and Silverton, on several different commercial or retail business scenarios, including the very real scenario the city council is now considering -- a 9100 sq. ft. Dollar General store. Without that, I'm not sure how you can make an educated decision.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts on this topic.
Sincerely,
Jeff Roth
Custom Box Service, Inc.
28230 S. Oglesby Rd.
Canby, OR 97013
[My normal office hours are 7:00 am to 3:00 pm]
Ph: 503.266.4553 | Fax: 503.266.9043
jeff@custombox.com | www.custombox.com