Porter County holds public hearing on Woods Edge residential TIF; panel schedules follow-up meeting

The Porter County Redevelopment Commission held a public meeting on the Woods Edge Residential Housing Development Program and heard several residents raise concerns about drainage, landscaping, privacy and changes to well water quality before voting to schedule a required fiscal-officer meeting for Nov. 6 to continue the statutory review process.

The commission’s consultant presented the Woods Edge program as a proposed residential allocation area of about 39 acres in unincorporated Center Township adjacent to the city of Valparaiso. He told the commission the program anticipates roughly $30 million in residential development, about $8 million in public improvements, and 93 dwelling units on lots from about 7,500 to 10,250 square feet. The consultant said the estimated market price of homes would range from about $500,000 to $650,000, and buildout would create an assessed value of roughly $53,000,400 that could generate about $412,000 in annual property taxes. He also said modeled tax-increment distributions over 20 years totaled about $7.2 million and that a 70/15/15 split (70% to developer reimbursement, 15% to the redevelopment…