Syracuse Redevelopment Holds Public Hearing On Residential TIFs
Posted
Denise Federow-
SYRACUSE - Syracuse Redevelopment Commission members held a public hearing on two residential Tax Increment Financing (TIFs) districts Tuesday.
Dennis Otten, of Bose McKinney and Evans, the Redevelopment Commission’s attorney, attended virtually as did Jim Higgins of LWG, the Commission’s accounting firm.
Otten explained the town was trying to establish two residential TIFs - one at Oakwood Resort and the other potentially called Northern Housing District behind Dr. Larry Allen’s office on Ind. 13.
Otten informed those present that typically TIFs are commercial “but recently the legislature modified to allow TIFs for residential areas, driven by a need to get more housing stock.”
Otten said businesses are having difficulty getting workers because of a lack of housing. A residential TIF is like most other TIFs with two differences - the town had to get a determination that there hasn’t been much housing growth and Otten said it received that determination. The other difference is they need to get approval from the local school corporation.
He shared that historically school corporations weren’t in favor of TIFs when the bulk of their funding was from property taxes but he said about nine years ago they changed to state tuition based on enrollment and state income tax funding. Therefore, increased housing means increased income so they’d tend to be in favor.
Redevelopment Commission President Larry Siegel asked Otten to explain TIF is not a tax increase. Otten told the public that was true - it is not a tax increase - the town is just capitalizing on the increase for the Redevelopment Commission to use back in the district.
Members of the public were given the opportunity to ask questions and resident Mark Schram said he was unclear as to whether the TIF is just new housing or would it entail existing properties, too. He was told it included all properties in the area - and on the existing properties the assessment is already there so it wouldn’t affect anything but if the value of the property should increase, the TIF would capture that.
Schram asked if improvements included park and Siegel responded it would be used for infrastructure such as a lift station or roads. Otten said they are pretty broad about the improvements they put on the declaratory statements including green spaces, public safety, utilities, etc.
Attorney Steve Snyder asked on the Oakwood TIF if the town is not acquiring property that’s up to the developer - the town is just providing infrastructure like water and sewer? Otten said that is correct. The Redevelopment Commission helps offset those costs so the developer doesn’t have to pass that on to the price of the house. In some cases, a town helping with some infrastructure makes the difference to whether a housing development happens or not.
Snyder also asked if the Redevelopment Commission would be assuming 100% of the capture and Otten said that is yet to be determined.
There were no further questions and the public hearing was closed. After the meeting, Siegel was asked about the number of houses planned for each residential TIF and he said final plans are not yet made as there are several determinations but the expectation is approximately 50 for the Northern Housing Development and 100 for the Oakwood development.
