Communities consider forming development district to govern Kimberly Clark plant
The Kimberly Clark corporation could be entering a deal in a step closer to making a manufacturing plant in Howland Township.
A nearly 100 page contract outlines forming a Joint Economic Development District or JEDD. It would essentially be a board made up of one representative from Howland Township, Warren Township, the City of Warren, the Kimberly Clark Corporation and an employee representative at the plant. They would give themselves the authority to tax themselves and use that money for any developments or improvements to the site.
“Whether it be new road ways, whether it be moving railroad tracks, moving power lines, doing additional road work for being able to get in and out of the site that’s all paid for by the JEDD,” Mike Keys, the Community Development Director for the City of Warren said.
The agreement would take any financial burden off of the taxpayers to get the project started.
“There's not one dime of city money going into this project,” Keys said.
“There's about 30 million dollars worth of infrastructure improvements that are going to be able to be expensed through the JEDD which was very important for the company and for our communities because probably individually or collectively we probably couldn’t have afforded that,” Mayor Doug Franklin of Warren said.
Mayor Franklin said discussions about a JEDD began with the corporation almost three years ago before Kimberly Clark committed to building a facility in the area.
The municipalities will still get the income taxes from the plant once it's up and running. Howland Township would get 40% of the income tax, the City of Warren 40% and Warren Township 20%.
Kimberly Clark is planning on building a million square foot facility near Pine Avenue. The first phase of the project is expected to take two to three years to complete and will bring 500 jobs to the area.
The Western Reserve Port Authority has already secured grants from the state to get the ground that used to be a steel company up to standard. $17,241,380 from the All Ohio Future Fund will go towards paving access roads to the site so that trucks will not have to pass through the City of Warren.
The three municipalities still need to vote to approve the JEDD. A public comment meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 11 at 5p.m in the Warren Council Chambers for the public to ask about this possible district.
The contract being considered by leaders also has safeguards written in. The document outlines if Kimberly Clark does not keep up with their plan for a plant the JEDD can find someone else to use the site and the corporation would have to pay back the funds used for the improvements.