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Consultant ties developer incentives and affordable housing programs to TIF amendment
Summary
Ron Smith described credit‑enhancement agreements and state affordable‑housing programs as tools Bridgton could use alongside a TIF amendment to attract development and workforce housing; he recommended distinguishing economic‑development TIFs from housing TIFs in drafting.
Ron Smith told the board that TIFs can be structured to support commercial development and that municipalities often negotiate credit‑enhancement agreements with large developers to make projects feasible. "When you do the credit enhancement agreement...for every $1 that I give you for property tax, I want 10¢ of it back to expand my future expansion," Smith explained, using a hypothetical example to show how incentives are negotiated.
He also described state programs that attach affordable housing to resort and commercial developments, or that fund brownfields cleanup to make sites usable. He urged the board not to conflate economic‑development TIF rules with affordable‑housing statutes and recommended the amendment language clearly define eligible project costs and, later, whether any geographic expansion is appropriate.
