KENNEBUNK — The Board of Selectmen voted Tuesday night to send three proposed changes to the town’s Lower Village Tax Increment Financing district to a November vote.
The changes would incorporate the former Bartley’s Restaurant, the Tudisco vacant property lot and the Gallery lot into the district. Kennebunk has three other TIF districts: the Route 1 district, the Alfred Road district and the Alfred Road district for utilities.
Economic Development Director Mathew Eddy said that the TIF district came out of an ongoing strategic planning process to create an identity for Lower Village, and that it makes sense to expand now that there is additional interest in buying the properties.
“This came out of the visioning process where one of the comments of the lower village folks was they really wanted to get the other side of Cooper’s Corner done ”¦ and if there was an opportunity to capture new value this was a time to do it,” Eddy said. “As properties come up (for sale) it would be wise for us to look at those properties, adding it to the TIF.”
TIF districts work by leveraging future property tax assessments against property improvements ”“ like a new facade or infrastructure built by the town ”“ in order to create additional value. The new value is also not included when calculating assessments for the town’s education and county tax responsibilities, saving additional money.
“All these projects that were done with TIF money did not increase the mil rate in this town,” David H. Spofford said.
In Lower Village, the town has put around $600,000 into improvements, and since 2004, the assessed value of properties in the Lower Village TIF has grown from $4.5 million to $9.8 million. However, the Lower Village TIF is the only district that has not yet resulted in a net benefit for the town.
Selectman Al Searles said that including these additional properties in the TIF would be necessary to make the district stand on its own; however, he said there needs to be a comprehesive study on the potential of the future properties added to the TIF.
“I think it’s basically essential to the Lower Village TIF that we do, just because it brings it back on a positive,” Searles said. “I think it’s ”¦ better to do a comprehensive study and do this as a one-shot thing because ”¦ otherwise it looks like we’re piece-mealing the entire thing,” Searles said.
Ed Karytko, who was elected to the Board of Selectmen in the June election, called for a workshop on the TIF districts, with Searles concurring. A workshop has been tenatively schedule for September on TIF districts in Kennebunk.
Resident Rachel Phipps, who says she is skeptical of TIFs, suggested that the Board of Selectmen open the workshop to the public.
“I think there are a lot of questions that need to be answered,” she said. “I think (a TIF district) gives the government of the town less control over where the funds go.”
Comments are not available on this story. Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others.
We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others.
We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs.
Show less