Clearly, it would increase economic development in the city and surrounding area.
Jul 14, 2012
By The News-Register Editorial Board
McMinnville City Council took a major step toward formation of a downtown urban renewal district this week by endorsing a financial strategy that could fuel core city development for two to three decades.
Here?s a quick review of the progress:
At the request of McMinnville Downtown Association past presidents, the city named a citizen task force to study ways to finance downtown development. That group urged the council to study urban renewal and tax increment financing as tools to finance such development in the downtown core area and the new Northeast Gateway District.
The council first approved an education project to learn about urban renewal, then hired Elaine Howard Consulting of Lake Oswego to draft an urban renewal feasibility study. She presented her findings to the council on April 10, showing that tax increment financing could launch projects ranging from utility and infrastructure improvements to property rehabilitation as well as transportation and mass transit.
Howard?s study focused on a proposed area of approximately 175 acres downtown and in the Northeast Gateway. The estimated property value is $95.6 million, or 4.5 percent of the city?s total assessed valuation.
With tax increment financing, property taxes going to government are frozen for the duration of the plan. Taxes on increased property values during the 20-30 year timeline, including all taxes on new developments, are diverted to the urban renewal program.
When urban renewal financing goals are met, those increased taxes revert to government agencies, more than repaying government agencies for taxes foregone during the project.
Timing could not be better. Property values are low today, and financial risks disappear if valuations rise during the course of the project.
This week, the council directed city staff to seek consulting proposals to prepare a required plan and to name a new advisory committee to assist the process. State law requires such plans to include project boundaries, a full project list with cost estimates and determination of maximum tax increment financing indebtedness.
The plan would then be presented to the city Planning Commission, the governing body of each taxing district and to the City Council.
Carefully crafted urban renewal could be a defining development project for generations, much like the formation of McMinnville Industrial Promotions in the 1950s and McMinnville Downtown Association in 1986.
Clearly, it would increase economic development in the city and surrounding area. It?s a rare opportunity for McMinnville to extend its decades-long record of progress in effective community development.
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