Supervisors approve $235,000 for TIF urban renewal projects

The Story County Board of Supervisors has approved $235,000 in tax-increment financing assistance for eight urban renewal area projects around the county, including $56,000 for a clock tower center in Nevada and $45,000 for a new water main in Kelley.

At its Tuesday meeting, supervisors signed off on those and six other projects located in seven towns and the Colo-Nesco School District for the TIF programs third year. The program was started to provide assistance for infrastructure projects, public land and trail improvements and Main Street revitalization.

Funding requests for this years approved projects, combined and after revisions, were about $60,000 above the $235,000 available without the county incurring debt by providing additional financing through bonds.

In 2012, the first year of the urban renewal area project, debts were incurred for the three approved projects, which included the expansion of the Dakins Lake county park outside Zearing.

However, supervisors agreed that none of the project applications this year rose to the level of justifying taking on debts.The board voted unanimously to approve revised figures suggested by Supervisor Rick Sanders that reduced each projects TIF funding by about 20 percent to meet the $235,000 limit.

The other TIF assistance projects approved by the supervisors Tuesday were $32,000 for a Collins water line project, $14,000 for the second phase of a Colo-Nesco playground project that received $45,000 in TIF funding from the board last year, $13,000 for a Huxley Heart of Iowa Trail resurfacing project, $30,000 for a Maxwell curb and gutter installation project, $21,000 for Slater Main Street improvements and $24,000 for Zearing Main Street building renovations.

Supervisors rejected TIF funding for three projects a Collins Main Street revitalization project that had been withdrawn after it was previously deemed ineligible, a separate Collins storm sewer project and a Story City project to build a street named after former Democratic state Sen. Rich Olive in the towns business park.

The projects were rejected because, supervisors agreed, the TIF program wasnt meant to fund road work and, in the case of Story City, separate TIF funding had already been secured for the project a fact Story City Administrator Mark Jackson previously argued, without success, shouldnt be a deciding factor.

However, the board agreed that the curb and gutter work in Maxwell was an exception because of its proximity to the Story County Freedom Rock, a veterans memorial, which made the board view the project more as a park improvement than road work.

Originally posted here:
Supervisors approve $235,000 for TIF urban renewal projects