Letter from Chip Northrup

Snow Plow Economics

The sprawling, unconnected Manocherian properties in the Towns of Otsego and Springfield are accessed by several miles of unpaved, seasonal dirt roads. Nobody lives there year-round, so there is no justification for the town to pave and snow plow them.

The developer now proposes to pave the existing dirt roads in order to cut lots off of them. They also propose to build new interior roads back in the trees and dedicate them to the townships. This creates new annual maintenance and service obligations for the towns that they could only justify by increased property tax revenue from the development.

Since the developer proposes to set aside most of the property as “open space,” that increased property tax will have to come from the construction of new housing. Since the absorption rate of remote home sites back in the woods is conjectural, that means that the towns will be obligated to snow plow the newly-paved roads from the outset, with little or no increased tax revenue to cover the cost.

The worst case tax scenario for the towns’ taxpayers is not that the development gets built-out with seasonal houses; it is that the townships will be stuck with the obligation of snow plowing roads that nobody lives on. For years. Such a deal.

Chip Northrup
Cooperstown