Consultants outline funding options, $6 million gap for proposed Germantown TID; village borrowing would raise homeowner costs

Phil Costant, a consultant with Eller's, told the Germantown Plan Commission that consultants had prepared answers to five questions raised at the March 31 public hearing on a proposed tax-increment district and project plan and outlined options for commissioners: approve the plan as drafted, not pass the resolution (which would stop the process), or modify the plan or district boundaries before referring it to the Village Board.

The project plan identifies parcels for redevelopment and shows how consultants calculated that roughly 51–52% of property within the proposed district meet the plan’s administrative standard for “in need of rehab or conservation”; wetlands were excluded from that calculation. Costant said the district could remain in place for up to 27 years and that the plan uses a conservative 2% annual property appreciation assumption for TID revenue projections, explaining that the village’s 27-year average growth is about 2.4% (the last decade averaged about 3.98%).

Why it matters: the consultants identified approximately a $6,000,000 gap in funding for early…