Council amends CRA agreement with Navistar developers; schools to receive retroactive payment

The Urbana City Council on May 6 passed a resolution to amend a 2017 community reinvestment area (CRA) agreement tied to the Navistar facility, changing how school compensation tied to the project will be handled.

Doug, a staff member, said the original CRA accompanied construction of a roughly 355,000-square-foot facility and included a multi-year abatement on improved property value. The original agreement anticipated higher payroll and job creation than subsequently reported; staff said reporting and economic conditions post‑COVID left the payroll and job counts below original projections.

Under the amendment, the city will keep the CRA abatement structure in place but will replace the prior city-to-school income-tax sharing arrangement with a compensation agreement under which the company or property owner will make direct payments to Urbana City Schools and Ohio Hi‑Point Career Center. Doug said the school boards have already approved their parts of the revised compensation agreements.

Council recorded unanimous approval on the resolution. Doug said the amendment includes a retroactive payment to the schools; the amount mentioned at the meeting was $12,008.54. Schools requested future payments include a 10% annual adjustment, which has been incorporated and approved by the school boards, staff said.

Staff reported the project currently reports fewer full‑time positions than originally projected — the company reported about 10 positions on recent reports — and that the amendment recalibrates payroll and job expectations accordingly. The agreement's 10‑year duration and its end year tied to the county auditor's valuation process were not changed, staff said. Implementation steps include finalizing signatures and issuing the retroactive payment after council approval.

No member of council recorded a no vote on the resolution.