Zamira Simkins
ZMC Inc. is planning to build a 75-room Hampton Inn and Suites hotel between the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center and Perkins restaurant on East Second Street in Superior. Our group of Superior residents opposed the development from day one, but city officials have been ignoring our concerns. The following summarizes why we are opposing the hotel site and use of public assistance - tax incremental district No. 13 - to support the developer.
To promote the project, the city has designated the area as “blighted.” Residential homes were initially blighted as well, which combined with a loss of view, would have significantly lowered the market value of our homes. Residential homes later were removed from the blighted area. In our opinion, however, blighted area designation should not be applied to a functioning public park. Also, the hotel will displace the playground and limit public parking and the public view of Superior Bay.
The hotel will be, in part, financed by a public subsidy, which is why the city has created tax incremental district No 13. Around $1.5 million of public funds will be used to prepare the hotel site, supply infrastructure and utilities, and undertake other projects so ZMC Inc. can build the hotel by the Bong Center. To afford these expenses, the city of Superior will issue debt obligations, which over time will total nearly $2.2 million in principal and interest that will have to be repaid from the city’s future tax revenues. This means that over the next 20 years about $2.2 million in tax revenue will be diverted away from local schools, libraries, roads, fire department and other public goods and services to subsidize the developer. Taxes should be used to finance public goods, not private corporations. When public subsidies are used, cities reasonably limit public assistance to 5 to 10 percent of the market value of a new development and require that at least one full-time job is created for each $40,000 of public assistance.
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In this case, public assistance will constitute over 30 percent of the projected market value of the hotel and only 15 full-time jobs and 15 part-time jobs will be created, whereas other cities would normally require 37 full-time jobs for a similar assistance package.
The hotel site may potentially violate Wisconsin’s constitution as part of the land that is planned to be transferred to the developer used to be covered by water and was later filled to create land. Under the state’s constitution, article 9, section 1, filled land belongs to the public and is protected by the Public Trust Doctrine. Legally, permissible uses for such filled lands include public recreation and maritime commerce only. Hotels and similar developments are explicitly prohibited on such public lands. The proposed hotel site is also considered a part of the wetlands and is therefore protected by the Rivers and Harbors Act, and the Clean Water Act. Despite these potential violations, the city is considering amending its ordinances to permit hotels in the waterfront district. Also, to the best of our knowledge, the city has not contacted the Wisconsin DNR or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to determine how much of the proposed hotel site is on the public trust land. Yet, the developer is planning to break the ground this fall.
Thursday at 2 p.m. in Room 201 at the Government Center, 1316 N. 14th St., Superior, a final public hearing will be held to sell this land to the developer. We ask that everyone concerned with this development attend the meeting and express their opinions.
Zamira Simkins, Ph.D., is a resident of Superior and assistant professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Superior.
