Drawing from the Community Chest (Page 2 of 5)

March 6, 2008
By: Knoxville Voice

Each of the 49 states with these laws has its own policies and restrictions on how TIFs may be employed. In Tennessee, local housing authorities oversee that projects are worthy investments for the community, using evidence that the property is either blighted or an area’s redevelopment is contingent on rehabilitating that particular property. Here the Knoxville Community Development Corporation and city’s IDB, a committee of seven mayor-appointed members, review proposals from developers desiring the long-term financing program.

City leaders often explain TIFs as being at “no cost” to the taxpayers. In Tennessee, they ordinarily follow this suit: Prior to receiving the TIF, local property assessors evaluate the tax level of the blighted property as-is and the most current tax rates of any given year. This technique lets increases in base revenues reflect the rise in property tax rate, but it only considers that the property value escalates as a result of redevelopment and doesn’t decrease as a result of inflation or other surrounding neighborhood factors. Depending on how long a TIF term is granted to a particular project, developers may not be responsible for paying property taxes at normal levels for up to 15 or 20 years.

Once local housing authorities review a TIF proposal and conduct a lengthy study on community impact, infrastructure and other variables, it’s put before City Council and Knox County Commission for the final OK. And while some locals are concerned the governing bodies are being too zealous with doling out the incentive, some counter that there should be just as much caution coming from the flipside.

“There’s always a risk in not doing the TIF,” says Bill Lyons, the city’s senior director of policy development. “Once you’ve got them invested, as soon as we do the TIFs, we get a big increase [in property tax revenue] right away, but you also get rid of a lot of social and economical problems.”

Since 2004, Knoxville has approved 13 individual TIF projects, not including the TIF district established for the whole South Knoxville Waterfront area, a limited designation for improvements to the Gay Street movie theater and the Knoxville Glove Factory infrastructure improvements located on the southern riverfront.

City Council members say the tally will continue to grow, and more projects will get the nod before the trend fades. “We’re willing to do projects until downtown takes off on its own,” says Becker, “to err on the side of doing a shade too much. I have confidence in the administration to know when to make that call on it. But, it is, by no means, automatic that TIFs are going to happen.”

And the core isn’t the only area where TIFs can be had. Projects have peppered south of the center, such as the waterfront district and the Lowe’s shopping center on Chapman Highway, extended north like developer Jeffery Nash’s Graystone Apartments project or west into the suburbs for the Northshore Town Center, a 155-acre boutique community, which includes townhomes, lofts, apartments, outdoor amenities and commercial space.

Not everyone is in favor of the development tool, citing ways they believe the inducement can backfire in a community, such as giving up potential tax revenue on TIF developments that could otherwise fund public schools, displacing developments to concentrated areas of town and disadvantaging mom-and-pop businesses in TIF project vicinities for the additional competition and the burden of taxes with which their TIF-receiving neighbors don’t have to contend.

A Tale of Two TIFs

As some TIFs have inspired public support and optimism for future economic prosperity, others have left some residents wondering who is to benefit most from what they deem as tax abatements for slick developers.

Along the southern bank of the Cola-colored Tennessee River, city leaders hope a 20-year TIF term will light the fire under a plan to turn a rundown eyesore of a water’s-edge view into a flourishing mecca of residences, shopping, public space and business. Though the South Knoxville Waterfront concept has existed for years, the TIF district, sprawling the expanse of the area officials hope will mirror the comely Volunteer Landing, has only gained momentum since the inducement package.

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