Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Economic Development Housing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Finance Committee signals support, requests workforce-housing follow-up for City of Elkhorn TID proposal
Summary
City Administrator Adam Swan briefed the committee on a proposed pay-as-you-go tax incremental financing district (TID No. 5). Committee members pressed for more workforce/attainable housing and accepted staff recommendation to send a concurrence letter while asking the city to return information if housing projects are added.
The Warwick County Finance Committee on Feb. 20 discussed the City of Elkhorn’s proposed Tax Incremental Financing District No. 5 and told county staff to send the city a letter indicating the county’s intent to concur with the TID plan as presented, while urging further progress on workforce housing.
City Administrator Adam Swan attended to answer questions. He described the proposal as a pay-as-you-go TIF intended to minimize risk to other taxing jurisdictions; the developer is proposed to receive 70% of the annual increment and 30% would remain in the district. Swan said the district boundaries were drawn to include a 14-acre West Market Street parcel that the city and council view as a good site for a higher-density, potentially attainable housing cluster.
Supervisors questioned how strongly the city would push affordable or attainable housing. Swan described prior efforts — including a recent apartment project (Creekside) and discussions about duplex-style owner-occupied development — and said the market currently makes new single-family houses costly (he cited average assessed values and infrastructure costs). He and committee members noted that developers have sometimes requested assistance to produce owner-occupied housing, and that the city has been trying to encourage a range of housing types.
County staff said the city had met ordinance requirements and included safeguards: if a project later added rental housing or other material changes, the city would return to the Joint Review Board and the county for additional approvals. The committee chair said she would send the city a letter indicating the county’s plan to move forward with concurrence while explicitly stating the county’s interest in workforce housing; supervisors agreed to that approach.
Committee members requested that the city provide additional housing-education materials to clarify what “attainable” or “workforce” housing looks like at various price points. Staff said the city and county are working on a housing matrix tool to show how features (lot size, basement, square footage) change across price bands and that staff would try to have that for the next month's meeting.
There was no committee vote to deny the TID; staff indicated the city plans to consider its project plan on March 3, and county staff will send an official letter of concurrence that notes the county’s interest in workforce housing and the requirement that materially different projects return to the Joint Review Board.
