In a narrow 5-4 vote, the Henderson City Council voted against housing city and county planning county planning and inspections together under one roof.
In discussion leading up to the vote, Mayor Melissa Elliott was critical of the proposed 20-year lease at $1 a year. Elliott broke the 4-4 vote to defeat the motion.
Council members voting in favor of the county and city creating in essence a “one-stop shop” for inspections and planning offices were Garry Daeke, Lamont Noel, Sam Seifert and Kenia Gómez-Jimenez. Council members voting against were Geraldine Champion, Catherine “Kitty” Gill, Tami Walker and Michael Venable.
City Manager Paylor Spruill presented the proposal at the Council’s regular monthly meeting on Feb. 9. The plan to create a decentralized Development Services Office at the former municipal building on Young Street would house the city’s planning and code enforcement services and the county’s planning and development, inspections, permitting and code enforcement staffs.
The county had agreed to foot the bill to upfit the building and the city would be asked to provide parking on property recently purchased from the Embassy Cultural Foundation.
The city previous had installed a new roof and new restrooms in the building, basically creating a shell structure as it awaited a future use.
Daeke made the motion to approve the resolution, seconded by Seifert, following a presentation by Vance County Chief Building Code Enforcement Officer Bob Rosch.
“Vance County will pay for all costs of upfit to meet all parties’ needs,” Rosch explained, including architect fees, construction and getting the building up to code “to everyone’s liking.”
Council member Venable said he like the idea of a single location for developers, businesses and others who need both city and county services, but questioned the $1 annual lease.
Rosch said the county’s investment would likely be in the $300,000 range – roughly what the city had invested when it made improvements to the building earlier.
Daeke said people can get things done quicker and make the process easier for prospective businesses to get answers to questions, get permits and more.
Rosch said his office is “shuffling people back and forth on a daily basis” between city and county offices. “It is very confusing for everybody,” Rosch said.
Elliott said, “I think a 20-year lease is pretty long” She asked whether the county had considered giving the city revenue as part of the agreement.
Rosch said the idea of a 10-year lease had been “completely rejected” by county commissioners.
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