A Danville City Council committee is backing plans for a new downtown Tax Increment Financing district. Members of the Public Services Committee of the City Council approved the plan last night (Tuesday) and sent it on to the full city council for consideration.
The committee had earlier heard a suggestion to add ten residential properties to the TIF which are located in an area surrounded by Seminary, Washington, Madison and Jackson Streets. But Mayor Scott Eisenhauer says that would have required rewriting the plan. ‘’What needs to be done is a re-write of the plan in its entirety since you’re going from a traditional commercial TIF to including residential. You also have to identify in the plan relocation plans for those residents…and you must do a housing impact study – that alone is $10-thousand dollars,’’ said the Mayor during the Public Services Committee meeting.
The committee decided to send the proposal to the full city council without adding those residential properties. The TIF district would allow for part of the property tax monies raised within the district to be earmarked for either new development or upgrading existing property. City leaders say some of the earmarked funds could go for such things as renovating areas above some existing downtown businesses to allow for more residential units or improving facades. Currently about 40 percent of the more than 130 buildings located within the proposed TIF District are vacant. The area is bounded roughly by Main Street on the north, Seminary Street on the south, Franklin on the west, and Washington Street on the east.
