City to update downtown development plan
Joy Pavelski
Issue date: 11/29/07 Section: News
The city of Hillsdale held a public meeting Tuesday to update its Tax Increment Finance Authority for the first time since 2001. At the meeting, 36 Hillsdale residents, small business owners and city council members listed improvements the TIFA board should make to the downtown in the next one to two years.
TIFA is an economic development district for downtown Hillsdale that the city created in 1986. Maps posted and passed around at the meeting outlined in red an irregular, roughly rectangular area enclosing perhaps 20 blocks which earns tax money for the city earmarked specifically for economic development.
The area generates roughly $100,000 each year.
"It essentially captures taxes in excess of a base level tax amount that's set when a district is established," said Hillsdale Economic Development Director Jay Bahr. "As time goes on and properties improve and get assessed at higher levels, the taxes generated by the increase values go into the TIFA fund that can only be used to fund projects to generate economic growth within the district. It's a way to make sure a downtown thrives and grows."
Communities throughout the country, like Millennium Park and South Loop in Chicago, use TIFA districts to keep tax money local and invested in visible town improvements. Downtown areas in the U.S. have been losing their 50s and 60s charm to boarded up storefronts and dirty streets when local businesses and their customers move from the city center to suburbs or another, larger town.
Recently, TIFA funds in Hillsdale have paid for facade renovations on historic downtown buildings, decorative plants, lights, trash bins, and benches and public parking lots. Residents at the meeting thought of much more.
"It's important to think of the downtown in ways we haven't thought of before," City Manager Michael "Mitch" Mitchell said. "We have to evolve."
Residents and local business owners discussed downtown strengths such as a small-town atmosphere, historic buildings, easy pedestrian access and proximity to lakes and trails, and weaknesses such as empty buildings, lack of
Hillsdale College Collegian 2007
TIFA is an economic development district for downtown Hillsdale that the city created in 1986. Maps posted and passed around at the meeting outlined in red an irregular, roughly rectangular area enclosing perhaps 20 blocks which earns tax money for the city earmarked specifically for economic development.
The area generates roughly $100,000 each year.
"It essentially captures taxes in excess of a base level tax amount that's set when a district is established," said Hillsdale Economic Development Director Jay Bahr. "As time goes on and properties improve and get assessed at higher levels, the taxes generated by the increase values go into the TIFA fund that can only be used to fund projects to generate economic growth within the district. It's a way to make sure a downtown thrives and grows."
Communities throughout the country, like Millennium Park and South Loop in Chicago, use TIFA districts to keep tax money local and invested in visible town improvements. Downtown areas in the U.S. have been losing their 50s and 60s charm to boarded up storefronts and dirty streets when local businesses and their customers move from the city center to suburbs or another, larger town.
Recently, TIFA funds in Hillsdale have paid for facade renovations on historic downtown buildings, decorative plants, lights, trash bins, and benches and public parking lots. Residents at the meeting thought of much more.
"It's important to think of the downtown in ways we haven't thought of before," City Manager Michael "Mitch" Mitchell said. "We have to evolve."
Residents and local business owners discussed downtown strengths such as a small-town atmosphere, historic buildings, easy pedestrian access and proximity to lakes and trails, and weaknesses such as empty buildings, lack of
Hillsdale College Collegian 2007
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