Developers and Hooper City discuss tax‑increment financing, school and fire‑district participation to fund sewer lift station for proposed Smith’s-anchored site

Developers seeking to build a 25‑acre shopping center anchored by a Smith’s grocery store in Hooper discussed using tax‑increment financing derived from property‑tax growth to pay for a sewer lift station that developers say the project requires.

The meeting, held before the Hooper City Council session on June 17, 2025, brought together the project team, city staff and county consultants to walk through the Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) / tax‑increment financing (TIF) mechanics in the LRB study and how other taxing entities — notably the local school district and fire district — would have to agree to participate for the CRA to fund the lift station.

Why it matters: The developer and city staff said a large public infrastructure cost — the lift station — is the key barrier to the project. The TIF mechanism would “freeze” the baseline assessed value and divert a portion of the increase in property tax receipts generated by the new development for a set term (examples discussed ran 15–25 years) to repay infrastructure costs; participants said the LRB model shows a present‑value uplift large enough in a worst‑case model to cover the…