City Council approves CRA changes and TIFs to clear path for Alto development

Circleville City Council on Tuesday approved multiple ordinances to make planned unit developments eligible for the Circleville Community Reinvestment Area (CRA), authorize a CRA agreement for the Alto project and establish tax-increment financing incentive districts and agreements tied to the Alto development.

The measures, presented at first reading and passed the same night after the council temporarily suspended its rules, are intended to allow the Alto planned unit development (PUD) to receive CRA tax abatements and for portions of the project to be supported by TIF-funded infrastructure improvements.

City planner Anna Nguyen said the ordinance expands the CRA’s eligible zoning districts to include PUDs so the city “can offer that CRA tax abatement to two planned unit developments.” Tim Colburn, director of P3, described the TIF for the single-family portion as tied to on-site improvements: “These TIF dollars will be used to get the project on-site. Additionally, these have been given to the project based on its merits.”

Council discussion and committee reports said the TIF revenues would fund public infrastructure such as water retention and thoroughfare work consistent with the city’s comprehensive plan and that part of the service payments would be distributed to the Circleville City School District and the Pickaway-Ross Career and Technology Center. A council member noted that the schools will not lose money as a result of the arrangement: “The schools will not lose any money based on this,” a committee speaker said during the meeting.

The council assigned ordinance numbers and passed the measures under emergency declarations as read into the record. One ordinance was described in the minutes as “Amending and restating ordinance number 11 66 20 10 in order to reestablish, describe, and expand the boundaries of the City Of Circleville Community Reinvestment Area,” and another was assigned 5432025 and titled to authorize a CRA agreement for multifamily facilities in the Circleville CRA. The council also adopted an ordinance creating Alto Ryan Homes tax-increment financing incentive districts and a separate ordinance applying TIF treatment to the apartment portion of the Alto PUD; minutes reference Ohio Revised Code 5709.40(B) in connection with the tax-exemption/TIF structure.

Council members voted by roll call to suspend rules and to pass each ordinance; the minutes record affirmative votes and the clerk’s announcement that the ordinances “pass.” The council said individual TIF and CRA agreements will proceed through the committee structure and council review on a project-by-project basis rather than as a blanket policy.

The ordinances and supporting agreements do not specify amounts of abatement or exact term lengths in the meeting record; those details are to be set in the negotiated CRA and TIF agreements and subsequent committee review. The record shows the city engaged the ALTA team and indicated consultation with the schools and the county during the drafting process.

Implementation steps remaining include execution of the CRA agreement with the Alto developer and any project-specific TIF agreements and municipal fund establishment for service payments. The council did not set additional public hearings at this meeting for these items; future committee and council sessions were referenced as the next steps.