Kosciusko County Redevelopment Commission made the first move Thursday on a Tax Increment Finance district that will pay for road improvements north of Milford. The commission approved a declaratory resolution for the TIF district encompassing about 500 acres north of East CR 1300N, surrounding the 200-acre site under development by Trupointe Cooperative Inc. The district will help pay for improvements to North CR 100E, which will see increased truck traffic once the facility gets underway. Trupointe requested that the TIF district be established by March 1 in order to start work on the first phase of construction once the weather improves, county attorney Mike Miner told commissioners. The first phase will include offices, a railroad loop and a fertilizer plant. The resolution will go next to the Kosciusko County Plan Commission and then county commissioners. The redevelopment commission will look at a confirmatory resolution at their March meeting. Commissioners discussed the size of the district and the 25-year length of the TIF resolution before the vote. They decided the expiration of the TIF wouldn't prevent any business from moving in, though Miner said it doesn’t seem likely that a company would still seek to build on the 500 acres 25 years from now. “There will likely be more interest in the area after Trupointe moves in,” he observed. “The primary concern the county has is to improve the roads. That way the roads will already be established if something else wants to move in.” He added that, though it may be a small portion of land, they didn’t want to box themselves in by limiting the TIF to just the Trupointe site. Expanding a TIF would be difficult once it’s established, observed George Robertson, president of the Kosciusko Economic Development Corp. He said it’s better to have one TIF than multiple districts on the same area of land. “It’s desirable land and we want to take care of it now,” Robertson said.
