Cape Girardeau needs to establish guidelines for tax-increment financing projects now that developers of the proposed Prestwick Plantation residential development have withdrawn their hotly debated funding request, TIF commissioners said Thursday night.
Commissioner Al Stoverink said the city needs guidelines so developers, the city council, TIF commissioners and the general public will know what projects could qualify for such financing.
The city, he said, doesn't need a reputation as a place where TIF projects aren't wanted.
Stoverink said it's a valuable economic tool. "Frankly, I would encourage other TIF applications," he said.
The guidelines, he said, should spell out how TIF money could be used.
Tax-increment financing, commonly called TIF, allows increased tax revenue from a development to go toward the project's own infrastructure instead of going to taxing entities such as a school district.
Commissioners said they would work with city planner Kent Bratton to develop guidelines on what types of projects and development costs would be considered for such financing.
The 11-member commission will then meet to review proposed guidelines and recommend the council adopt the guidelines, said Al Spradling III, commission chairman and former mayor.
Spradling said the commission could meet again within a month.
Prestwick developers wanted the financing to extend streets, sewers and water to its proposed upscale 700-home subdivision near a golf course on the western edge of Cape Girardeau.
Developers said last month they would drop their funding request and look at other ways to finance the project.
The city has had a TIF Commission since April 2002. Spradling, who appointed himself as chairman in one of his last acts as mayor, said the process worked but more slowly than he had hoped.
"That is what happens when you start something new," he said. "I think there was a significant learning curve that we all had to get on board with."
Spradling said some of the delay was the result of lengthy discussions between the school district and the developers in an effort to come up with a plan that everyone could agree on.
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