TOPSHAM

Selectmen considered putting on the brakes on two proposed tax increment financing district applications Thursday, but after lengthy debate stuck to a schedule that includes public hearings still next Thursday.

Selectmen David Douglass and James Trusiani said the board had not had sufficient chance to hear what is in the documents, review and endorse them.

Though there was discussion around pushing the meeting schedule back a week, selectmen are still scheduled to hear presentations and hold public hearings on two TIF agreements and a neighborhood revitalization plan on Thursday, Aug. 22. At that meeting selectmen will also consider placing all three on a draft town meeting warrant and scheduling a public hearing on Sept. 5 on the town meeting warrant.

Selectmen balked as they were being asked Thursday to approve a schedule of hearings to address the Affordable Housing TIF, Main Street Downtown TIF and the Neighborhood Revitalization Plan for the Elm and Green street area as part of the town’s ongoing economic development efforts.

Trusiani said he read in the newspaper’s public notice section that the board was going to hold a public hearing on the proposals.

“When did the Board of Selectmen vote in this process to have that conversation?” Trusiani asked. “That’s usu- ally the process. I know this is a fast track. We were given a schedule and there were a lot of dates on it. … But here we are on the 15th (of August) with already next Thursday is a public hearing that has already been advertised as a Board of Selectmen’s public hearing. And I, as one member of this board, never voted for that public hearing next week. Did I miss something along this process?”

Town Manager Cornell Knight said the previous meeting agenda probably should have included scheduling of the public hearing.

“Holding a special workshop that I was told about — same thing, in the newspaper by my wife … I have problems,” Douglass said. “Then I get all of these plans, now the final drafts and as I read them and I want to do my duty to help the town of Topsham the best that I can and try to be business friendly, and when I get these plans in front of me, combined with the process? Well I don’t support these. There is a lot of things in here that we are committed to that has not had a presentation.

“We’re expected to sit next Thursday and hear from the public whether they want to take it on or not. I don’t support it,” Douglass continued. “I don’t believe I would move it to a public hearing next Thursday. I want to support what we talked about in June, the overview of assisting the affordable housing on Elm Street,” with an affordable housing TIF that would help redevelop the former Amenity Manor nursing home into affordable senior housing.

“But I want to support that doing the business the way Topsham does its business,” Douglass said, “not changing the way we do it to make things happen.”

He pointed to the language in the Main Street TIF agreement language that the town must submit to the state Department of Economic and Community Development, stating the town “will” do several things, such as spending money on a roundabout.

Economic and Community Development Director John Shattuck said the economic development plans in any TIF proposal are “proposed or outlined opportunities where the town has indicated either an interest or an obligation … to expend funds, and not a commitment.

“It simply sets the ground where the town may be permitted to use sheltered, TIFgenerated revenues. It’s not a commitment to expend in those areas. It is, in effect, giving ourselves in advance permission to do so without having to go back to DECD or Maine State Housing (Authority) and request an amendment.”

Shattuck added that any expenditure must be approved within the town’s budget process. “You can’t compel the town, you can’t bind the future budget process of selectboard on these grounds,” he said. “It’s giving us a range of areas where we could deploy these funds.”

Douglass said “these were put forward without consent. That’s frightening.”

Selectmen, he said, “were just asked tonight to move this along to a public hearing. We weren’t even asked to get into this discussion and understand this tonight.”

Trusiani also cited portions of the Main Street TIF agreement language and said, “I see things in here that we’re committed (to), I agree with you Dave.”

He argued it’s the first time he’s seen a TIF where selectmen haven’t participated in the discussion of the language. “Very dangerous,” he said. “Very dangerous.”

The draft TIF and Neighborhood Revitalization Plan language is posted on the town’s website at www.topshammaine.com.

dmoore@timesrecord.com