SACO — Pending final state approval, Saco’s downtown will be designated a downtown omnibus municipal development district, which will shelter increased tax revenues to be used for economic development projects.

The City Council voted to approve designating the downtown as a development district on Tuesday.

Through the program, the city will shelter 100 percent of the increased value of accessed property in the downtown district and use the money for projects that could include staffing costs in the city’s economic development office, economic development grants, and funding for local economic development organizations including Saco Main Street and the Biddeford + Saco Chamber of Commerce + Industry, as well as for street and sidewalk improvements.

The tax shift will offset the adverse effect that the development district’s increased assesed property value will have on the city’s share of state aid to education, municipal revenue sharing, and its county tax assessment.  

Now that the development district has local approval, documentation will be sent to the State of Maine Department of Economic and Community Development for final approval.

Pending state approval, the program will begin July 1 and will end  June 30, 2047.

The economic development district program will replace the Downtown-Saco Island tax increment finance district, which expired Dec. 30.

Before approving the plan, the City Council made some changes to the document.

The council eliminated a provision that would allow money from the district to be spent on municipal natural gas projects. The request to eliminate this provision was made by Councilor Eric Cote, a vocal opponent of natural gas. 

The council also voted to eliminate some of the language in the introduction and replace it with language referencing the Bridge: 2025 visioning effort conducted a few years ago.

Councilor Kevin Roche introduced this change, saying that “real money” as well as “real time” by “real citizens” had been spend on the effort, and it was “being buried” and not being utilized.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.