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Helena commission hears presentation on commercial PACE program; staff to return with resolution of intention
Summary
City staff and a statewide CPACE administrator briefed the Helena City Commission on Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (CPACE), explaining how liens and county tax systems would be used; commissioners asked for clarifications and staff will bring a resolution of intention at a regular meeting in the coming weeks.
City finance staff presented a plan to establish a Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy district (CPACE) for properties inside Helena city limits and told commissioners they will return with a resolution of intention in the coming weeks.
The presentation described CPACE as financing that allows commercial property owners — including qualifying multifamily dwellings — to get long-term, private-sector loans for energy efficiency, renewable energy, seismic upgrades, flood and fire hardening, and other building resilience measures. A city finance staff member said the city would establish the district within municipal boundaries and that the program “works with the lenders and the interested parties in setting this up.”
Carolyn Jones, statewide administrator for the Montana Facility Finance Authority and a CPACE representative, told the commission that CPACE liens are recorded as special assessment liens on a parcel and collected through the property tax system. Jones said residential PACE programs have been limited nationally because of consumer-protection problems when contractors did not clearly explain that assessments become liens on a property; commercial PACE is active in roughly 40 states plus D.C., she said. “Residential [PACE] was fraught with a lot of issues from that perspective,” Jones said.
Jones and city staff described the county treasurer and property-assessment systems as central to implementation. Jones said software vendors estimate the initial set-up at the county level takes about two hours of staff time for a parcel to be configured in tax software so the special assessment will appear on annual property tax bills. She said the CPACE administrator (the Montana Facility Finance Authority) would track and forward payments to the lender on behalf of the property owner.
Commissioners asked whether the city or county would be responsible for entering assessments into the tax system. City staff said that in some jurisdictions the county treasurer builds the account, but in Helena the city can have access and may be the party that inputs the parcel-level assessment; staff said they would clarify the local operational responsibilities before the resolution of intention returns to the commission.
No formal action was taken at the administrative meeting; staff were directed to return with the proposed resolution of intention for the commission’s consideration at a regular meeting.
The commission indicated support for bringing the item back for a formal vote; several commissioners said they expect to support the resolution when it is on a regular meeting agenda.
