Feasibility study recommends two urban renewal areas to finance infrastructure; council to consider creating agency

Consultants and city staff presented a financial feasibility study on creating an urban renewal agency and two proposed urban renewal areas for Umatilla, explaining how tax increment financing would work, statutory limits and next steps. Council members did not adopt an urban renewal plan at the meeting but were told the city will present a first-reading ordinance to form an agency at a future meeting and that staff will meet with affected taxing districts.

Elaine Howard, a statewide urban renewal consultant, told the council that “urban renewal is not a new tax” and that the financing tool captures increases in property tax revenues within a defined urban renewal boundary (the tax increment) while preserving taxes on the frozen assessed value for all taxing jurisdictions. In Oregon, she said, urban renewal requires a showing of “blight” as defined in state law and is implemented through tax increment financing tied to a plan with a maximum indebtedness (the plan’s spending limit).

Consultants recommended splitting potential urban renewal activity into two separate boundary areas — a west boundary that covers the downtown and core commercial streets and an east boundary that covers…