Agenda - 10-19-2004-7b - Laserfiche WebLink

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heraldsun.com: printer-friendly story a~ The basic idea is to allow a town, city or county to set up a district within the community, one in which officials hope to encourage redevelopment efforts by the private sector. If officials decided they needed to invest public funds in "public improvements" in the dishict to attract business, they could turn to tax- increment financing or self=financing bonds to pay for the improvements. To pay back the money it would borrow under that approach, a community would commit to using the increased tax revenues it would expect to take in as the property value rises within the azea being redeveloped. "I think it's a useful tool to have available," said Cal Horton, Chapel Hill's town manager. "The key thing is that local elected officials need to be in chazge of its use, and make sure that what they do with it is consistent with community values." Horton said some communities have had good results in using tax-increment financing, while others have experienced "questionable" results. It depends in part on how leaders manage it. "Every community would decide how and whether to make use of this tool," he said. "It actually might be of great value to a community that is suffering some economic distress, particularly some of the eastern counties and cities and some of the more remote mountain areas." He added, "I think our council would be very careful about considering using self-fnancing bonds, and would want careful evaluation of risks as well as potential value." One potential application oftax-increment financing here that's been mentioned grows out of the Town Council's work to possibly redevelop some of Chapel Hill's downtown parking lots, in partnership with a private-sector developer or developers, The town's consultant, .Iohn Stainback, has said the town likely would have pay for features like a new parking deck. He's pointed to tax-increment financing as one of the ways that the town eventually could consider to help pay for such costs.. But the council has not committed to redeveloping the lots, or to trying any specific steps such as tax- increment financing. And Stainback said this week that, in crafting a financial model for the town's project, he is not figuring in any reliance on tax-increment financing. In support of Amendment One, Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy will join other local officials from across the state this morning in Greensboro to speak in favor of the proposal.. The press conference, to be held on a downtown street corner where a number of businesses have shuttered their operations, is on behalf of the N. C. Metropolitan Coalition, which has been campaigning for the amendment. The council's Sept, 7 vote for its resolution supporting the anendment was 8-1. Councilman Mark Kleinschmidt cast the only dissenting vote after voicing concerns that the burden would fall back on taxpayers if a redevelopment project didn't work out. Councilwoman Sally Greene voted in favor, but she said Tuesday that she's changed her mind after learning more about the fine print. Greene said that, in supporting the resolution, she had been thinking paztly about the many shuttered mills azound North Carolina that could be prime locations for redevelopment efforts, But she said it seems that communities are finding ways to do such projects without having tax-increment financing as http://www.heraldsun.com/tools/printfriendly.cfm?StoryID=532204 10/1.3/2004