Amherst Twp. to see new housing

County commissioners help pave way for subdivision

The Lorain County commissioners have approved the creation of an incentive district that is paving the way for a new housing subdivision.

According to Don Romancak, director of the county’s economic development department, the county intends to take a percentage of the increased property taxes created by the development to install a new sanitary sewer.

These agreements are commonly known as tax increment financing, or a TIF, Romancak said.

The subdivision is being proposed by Amherst Hampshire Farms LLC, which, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s website, was started on

April 19 by statutory agent Thomas J. Oster of Lorain.

Romancak said the planned 50-home subdivision will be off of Oberlin Road, south of state Route 2 and north of Kay Drive in Amherst Township.

As part of the project, Romancak said the new sewer will be extended to not only the new development but also northward.

“We would not be assessing for the installation of the pipe,” he said.

As part of the agreement, the developer has guaranteed the project will go forward and if there is a shortfall between the cost of the sewer and the tax money intended to pay for it, the developer will make up the shortfall, Romancak said.

“If, in the future, if that TIF were to generate, he would be entitled to recapture some of his money if it ever did produce enough

to repay him,” Romancak said of the developer.

This arrangement keeps the developer in a position of risk to complete the work he has said he would do and to ensure the development will generate sufficient revenue to cover the cost of the new sewer extension, Romancak explained.

“(This is) an improvement that will benefit, not just (the developer’s) development, but that whole area in there,” he said.

As part of the deal, the county is seeking to amend an existing sewer agreement for that area with Lorain, which accepts and treats the waste, Romancak said.

“Right now is a negotiation between the county and the city to have the city accept that sewer flow,” he said.

“The city is looking for a different rate (on sewer service) from the existing rate and the county is opposed to having neighbors, essentially, one paying one rate and another paying the other.”