TERS board reviews program rules, eligible projects and exception policy

Cassie Baumgartner, planning staff, opened the meeting with an overview of the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone No. 1 program, saying it was “established in 2010” and covers 947 acres centered on McKinney’s historic town center and State Highway 5. Baumgartner described the program’s purpose as creating a dedicated funding bucket to support investment, redevelopment and district enhancements within the TERS area.

Baumgartner laid out the five broad TERS project categories — catalyst projects, vacant and underutilized sites, mixed-income and affordable housing, innovation pilot sites and district enhancement — and explained how staff assigns each application to a project type before matching eligible expenditures to policy guidelines. She told the board that “funding for environmental remediation is generally limited to $50,000 per qualifying project without a match,” and that other categories such as critical maintenance typically require a 50/50 match up to $100,000. Baumgartner also noted the board retains full authority to grant meritorious exceptions and that the policy suggests allowing up to $200,000 on a 50/50 basis as an exception guideline.

The presentation closed with a reminder that staff will return with a consolidated update to the project-plan and policy-and-guidelines documents to clean up administrative language and standardize staff reports across project types.