Feb. 19—The Effingham County Board is set to vote on a request annex a subdivision located near Effingham Country Club, Prairie Ace Estates, into the Effingham/Effingham County Enterprise Zone during its meeting Tuesday, Feb. 20.

In a 5-2 vote Thursday, the Effingham County Tax and Finance Committee recommended that the board approve the petition for annexation following a lengthy discussion between committee members, the developers of the subdivision and other city officials.

Tax and Finance Committee Chairman Norbert Soltwedel and committee member Doug McCain voted against sending the annexation request to the board for final approval. Committee members Elizabeth Huston and Chris Keller were absent.

“This proposed residential development on these properties could result in up to 41 more homes being built in our area,” Effingham Economic Development Specialist and Effingham/Effingham County Enterprise Zone Administrator Sasha Althoff said during the committee’s meeting.

The annexation of the subdivision would add about 50 acres to the Enterprise Zone, and Althoff said an approximately 1.4 acre area would also be added to act as a “connector strip” between the subdivision and the Enterprise Zone’s boundaries.

Before the request can be considered by the state of Illinois, the county, city of Effingham and village of Teutopolis will have to approve it. The Effingham City Council is expected to vote on the request Tuesday, and Althoff said the Teutopolis Village Board will be considering it Wednesday.

The Effingham/Effingham County Enterprise Zone Board has already approved the petition for annexation.

“Our hope is to be able to submit the annexation application to the Illinois Department of Economic Opportunity by the end of this month,” Althoff said.

RE/MAX Key Advantage Realtor and Prairie Ace Estates resident Keith Hartman and developer Scott Conant also went before the committee Thursday and spoke in support of the request, citing their desire to encourage development in the subdivision through Enterprise Zone tax incentives for the construction of new homes as construction costs continue to rise.

Hartman noted that there are 13 purchased lots in the subdivision that haven’t had any homes built on them yet.

“A lot of people that own those lots live locally, and they’re waiting for some type of an incentive or interest rates to go down to be able to build,” Hartman said. “And they would have homes in town that they would put for sale, so that will help spur other people moving in town as well.”

Additionally, Hartman said Prairie Ace Estates is being developed as a “mixed-use subdivision” that could accommodate the construction of smaller homes and duplexes in addition to larger, more expensive homes.

“Of the 28 lots we still have for sale, 17 of them can build smaller homes and duplexes,” Hartman said. “Only 11 lots have a requirement to build a minimum 1,800 square foot home.”

Some committee members pushed back against the request over concerns that approving the annexation would only incentivize the development of homes for high-income residents while doing little to alleviate the county’s ongoing housing crisis.

“We can say this is a mixed-use neighborhood, but it’s by the country club,” Committee member Jeremy Deters said. “This is going to be higher-end stuff. That’s just the reality of it. Not everybody in this county makes $100,000-plus a year.”

Deters asked if a low-mid-income neighborhood could apply for annexation into the Enterprise Zone, and Althoff replied, saying that all that is required for an annexation request for a subdivision is at least 10 single-family lots or four multi-family lots. All lots must also be contiguous to qualify for annexation.

“If someone would like to develop that, we would welcome it,” Althoff said.

The owner of Effingham Homes, Steve Thoele, also criticized the request during the meeting.

“I think there are other avenues available than what they’re offering,” Thoele said. “I just don’t agree with taking tax money from the rest of us to benefit just a few.”

Soltwedel express a similar concern with only offering tax incentives to certain county residents.

“You’ve got an unequal situation out there,” Soltwedel said. “It’s going to raise tax rates for the rest of the people. We’re shifting the load to the low-income people.”

Despite these concerns, several committee members defended the annexation request and noted that the subdivision meets the minimum requirements for annexation into the Enterprise Zone which are set by the state of Illinois.

“We recently approved the ability to use residential incentives in this zone,” Effingham County Board Chairman and Tax and Finance Committee member Josh Douthit said. “I think it’s counterproductive to then say we’re not going to allow individuals to utilize what we just approved.”

“I’m not going to discriminate against one developer over another just because it may be a few thousand dollars more to do so.”

Douthit also noted that the tax abatement for builders of new homes in the zone only lasts for three years for multi-family homes and five years for single-family homes.

“At the end of the day, Effingham County is going to benefit from this, hands down,” Douthit said.

Effingham County State’s Attorney Aaron Jones provided committee members with his legal view on the matter prior to their vote.

“I don’t think there’s any confusion, but some of the comments seem to suggest that we have control over what the sate does with regard to how they open up these enterprise zones,” Jones said. “It certainly would be great if there were incentives for the people moving into the older houses when someone builds a new house, but that’s not the available avenue we have to deal with it. We can let the perfect become the enemy of the good if we want, but this is what we have.”

Tax and Finance Committee Vice-Chair Sandra Gillet also voiced her support for the request before voting to recommend its approval to the county board.

“I might not like every single part of it,” Gillet said. “I do think it caters a little bit to the higher-end, but it does meet the minimum requirements. And I do think in this economy that there are a lot of people who would potentially build.”

Nick Taylor can be reached at nick.taylor@effinghamdailynews.com or by phone at 618-510-9226 or 217-347-7151 ext. 300132.