Council to hold development agreement hearing

    After passing five ordinances at their meeting two weeks ago, the Washington City Council has a whole new slate of issues to discuss at its upcoming meeting Wednesday night. Among those is a hearing on a development agreement to rebate property taxes on the building at 101 S. Marion Ave. The building is currently used by the Chamber of Commerce, Main Street Washington and the Washington Economic Development Group.

    Washington Preservation LLC made improvements to the building approximately one year ago in anticipation of receiving Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to underwrite a portion of the costs. The city established a downtown urban renewal area and a TIF district on the project.

    City Administrator Dave Plyman said the building was thoroughly renovated with improvements to the offices, apartments and retail space.

    ?It is really a wonderful use of an old building,? said Plyman.  

    The agreement would require the city to rebate the entire property tax increment on the property for the first five years. That means the building?s owners would continue to pay the base property tax without having to pay taxes on the increased value over that span.

    The city would rebate 75 percent of property tax increment for the following five years and then 60 percent of the increment for the 10 years after that. Washington Preservation LLC would receive the rebates provided it adds $200,000 of new taxable value to the property.   

Fo rthe fullstory, see the Nov. 17 edition of The Washington Evening Journal