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Committee advances draft ordinance setting criteria for TIF districts, including $50,000 threshold for studies
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Summary
Attorney Catherine Walker presented a draft ordinance to add TIF district criteria to Chapter 12, proposing a $50,000 threshold above which applicants must supply market feasibility and cost-benefit analyses, and recommending requirements for outreach, stakeholder committees, and incentives for mixed housing and active transportation.
Attorney Catherine Walker presented a draft ordinance to the City of Norman Council Oversight Committee that would add criteria for establishing Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts to Chapter 12 of the city code.
Walker said the draft creates a new section (12-703) outlining the criteria for TIF districts and distinguishes between rural and urban applications. She explained the draft would require an economic and risk analysis and allow the city manager and staff to share the analysis with council before placing a resolution to appoint an ad hoc stakeholder committee on the council agenda.
On application requirements, Walker proposed that requests for assistance or development financing that exceed $50,000 must include detailed documentation, "demonstrating the financial ability to meet the project costs and complete the project, a detailed market feasibility study, [and a] cost benefit analysis." Requests under $50,000 would need a sufficient basis and other information staff reasonably requests to allow flexible review for smaller projects such as façade improvements.
Walker also proposed language encouraging residential projects to incorporate a mix of housing types identified in the city's housing strategy, accessible or visitable units, and connections to active-transportation projects in the city's comprehensive transportation plan to promote walkability and aging-in-place features.
Committee members asked for maps of existing enterprise zones and reinvestment areas so they could assess rural opportunities and specific sites discussed, including an east-Norman meat-processing site located near Highway 156 and Highway 9. Members also asked whether TIF funds could accelerate ODOT-recommended safety improvements on Highway 9 or fund community facilities such as the Little Axe Community Center or new fire stations; Walker said public improvements are allowable but cautioned that TIF typically relies on property-tax increment and the availability of sales tax in the area is limited.
Members generally supported moving the draft forward to study session with requests for follow-up work on maps, potential Department of Commerce contacts for enterprise-zone designation, and refinement of the residential incentive language.
The committee did not adopt a final ordinance at the meeting; staff will refine the draft and bring it to study session for further council consideration.
