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Fort Scott approves housing-needs resolution to pursue Reinvestment Housing Incentive Districts
Summary
The commission approved a resolution that describes housing needs and asks the state Department of Commerce to allow the city to create Reinvestment Housing Incentive Districts (RHIDs) in three areas. The action is the first statutory step toward using RHID financing tools for targeted housing projects.
The Fort Scott City Commission voted Sept. 3 to adopt a housing-needs resolution that moves the city toward using Reinvestment Housing Incentive Districts (RHIDs) as a tool for housing redevelopment.
Garthorn of Gilmore & Bell, the city'contract attorney on municipal finance, explained the process: the commission must first adopt findings describing local housing needs and a map of areas where the city might later form RHIDs; the city publishes the resolution once and forwards it to the Kansas Department of Commerce for Secretary review. If the Secretary approves the findings, the city may later create one or more districts and use incremental tax increments to help fund redevelopment.
The resolution included three tracts the city identified for potential RHID work, generally near Horton and 19th Street and a third tract on 19th Street near Eddie. The commission discussed whether to include an additional 'second-story downtown' district and the Moody building; staff noted properties that are already "shovel-ready" for developer projects can be added in later resolutions.
Commissioners approved the housing-needs resolution on roll call and authorized the city clerk and the city's bond counsel to publish and submit the package to the Department of Commerce for review.
