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Middleville council hears proposal for 25-home development seeking tax-increment financing
Summary
A developer outlined plans for 25 new homes near the high school and asked the council to consider tax-increment financing to reimburse infrastructure and affordability costs over decades; council members pressed for details and staff said the proposal will return for further review.
Greg Bird, program manager for workforce housing at Alen Edward Homes, told the Village of Middleville council the company is proposing to build 25 residential units on just over 11 acres across from the high school along Bender Road. “What we're talking about here is building 25 new residential units,” Bird said, adding that the build schedule would be about three years and that “four of them would be income-restricted missing-middle workforce housing.”
Bird and his consultant, Jared of Michigan Growth Advisors, described tax-increment financing (TIF) as the tool the developer seeks to use to reimburse site preparation, infrastructure costs and an affordability component over a capture period. Bird summarized the proposal's financing mechanics: the developer would construct infrastructure up front, and the increase in property tax revenue would be used to reimburse those costs over the capture period. He said the current draft contemplates a long capture period and noted a 2023 law change allowing certain brownfield work to support housing.
Council members asked detailed questions about who would pay for water, sewer and roads during the capture, how long the tax capture would last and the financial feasibility without TIF. Bird said the developer's numbers make the project difficult to deliver without the TIF arrangement and cited rising materials costs and an estimated infrastructure and site-preparation cost of about $85,000 per unit. "The infrastructure and site preparation costs are about $85,000 per unit just to build the roads, storm water, water, sewer, etc.," he said.
Several council members expressed concern about the long-term fiscal impact on village taxpayers and the village's ability to pay for maintenance costs such as chip-sealing roads that will serve the new development. During public comment, Glory Mar, the village finance director and treasurer, clarified that water and sewer are enterprise funds and pay for themselves, noting that the TIF capture does not eliminate the village's obligation to operate water and sewer services.
The council did not take final action on the TIF request at the meeting. Members asked for additional information and proposed returning the item at a future meeting or workshop with more detailed cost, capture-period and master-plan context so the council can weigh fiscal impacts and development benefits before any vote.
