TIF review gets 1-month delay

Bill O'Brien, The Record-Eagle, Traverse City, Mich.
·2 min read

Mar. 16—TRAVERSE CITY — Action on the city's latest tax increment financing plan will be delayed for a month by the city's Downtown Development Authority Board.

The DDA board on Friday morning approved a one-month pause in its review of the revised Moving Downtown Forward TIF plan, but stopped short of supporting a longer delay recommended by board Chair Gabe Schneider and Vice-chair Scott Hardy while the DDA completes the search process for a new CEO to replace recently departed Jean Derenzy.

Several board members pushed back on that proposal, concerned that delaying action on the plan could erode its public support.

"I'm so confident in that plan — I interviewed to be on this board because of that plan," member Hillary Ascroft said. "I don't understand why we're talking now about pausing it ... my concern is that we're fully pausing an entire plan that has been out there for awhile now."

Mayor Amy Shamroe agreed.

"This plan has been discussed for a long time," Shamroe said. "We had a very robust conversation at our last meeting. Several existing board members said we have a great plan here ... our job is to assess the plan, put the plan forward and vote on the plan."

Schneider said his intention wasn't to create an indefinite delay in the plan's review.

"It's an opportunity to perhaps further refine and hone our messaging and scope around what is in our plan ... we have some internal work in addition to some external work to do to make sure we're in a good position to be successful with this plan moving forward," Schneider said.

A motion from newly seated board member and former city commissioner Gary Howe to delay action on the plan until July was rejected, before the board unanimously agreed to a proposal from member Ed Slosky to put the TIF plan on the agenda for its next regular meeting on April 18.

"I don't know how a month from now or three months (the plan) is any different than it is now," member Peter Kirkwood said. "We've been trying to educate the community about TIF forever. There isn't some magical thing that happens in three months that suddenly the community is like 'oh, I get it now'."

Derenzy retired March 5, and Harry Burkholder was named interim CEO. The search process is expected to take three to four months.

The TIF plan, formerly known as TIF '97, includes tens of millions of downtown projects and infrastructure maintenance. Some of those items include work on Rotary Square along Union Street, the lower Boardman/Ottaway riverfront improvement project, and the West End mixed-use development involving housing and retail space along State and Park streets.