GOOD HOPE — The City of Good Hope will consider an economic development agreement with a local homebuilder to provide an incentive for building a new housing development in the city.

The development, called San Antonio on Reid Road, will include 10 new houses that are being built by Jeronimo Silva, said Good Hope Mayor Jerry Bartlett.

Bartlett said the city has previously worked with Silva to provide sewer tie-ons for each of the 10 houses that he built in another development — at a price of around $1,500 for each house — but the newest development will have septic tanks instead of being on the city’s sewer system. 

Because the city will not be providing the sewer incentive, Good Hope will instead fund a 20-inch street gutter for the development if the new agreement is passed, he said. 

Bartlett said the price for the gutter will be around $7.75 per foot for the 1,000 feet of gutter, meaning the price will likely be around $7,500, so that amount is well under what the city has paid for the sewer tie-ons in the past. 

“It’s not going to cost us a lot, but we’re going to reap a lot of benefit from those 10 houses,” he said. 

Bartlett said every house built in Good Hope means more people moving into the city, and each house brings in an average of around $1,000 in sales tax every year, so providing an incentive to build more houses should make the city more than it is spending on the incentive.

“Every year, just in sales tax alone, we’re bringing in $10,000 extra from those 10 extra houses,” he said. 

Before an economic development agreement can be passed by the city council, the State of Alabama requires a public hearing to be held and for the agreement to be advertised in local newspapers, so those will have to be scheduled before the council makes a final decision.

The council did pass a motion Monday night to move forward with pursuing the agreement, and set a cap of $15,000 for the total amount of installing the gutter.

Most businesses that are looking to move into an area are looking for some kind of an incentive, whether it’s a tax break, a sewer tie-on or a gutter, so providing an economic development agreement should encourage them to come to Good Hope, Bartlett said. 

“Nowadays, people ain’t coming unless you give them a little bit of an incentive,” he said. “They expect you to do a little bit of something because of the economic impact that they’re causing for your city.”