Members of the Regional Development Association of East Central Kansas voted unanimously to recommend that the Emporia city commission approve a TIF/TDD application that will allow a Lowe’s store and other retailers to be built in Emporia.
The purpose of the meeting was to determine the feasibility of the application submitted in August by DJ Christie, Inc. of Overland Park. The application requests that a Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, and Transportation Development District, or TDD, be created for a 39-acre tract of land at 24th Avenue and Industrial Road.
Establishment of a TIF district requires the property to be designated as an area of economic blight. According to the application presented to the city in late August, the TIF will consist of real property increment and the city’s unrestricted sales tax, and the TDD calls for a self-imposed one percent sales tax to apply to the district only. The TIF will be for a term of 20 years; the TDD will extend for 22 years.
“What we need to determine today is that the application is complete, and that it shows reasonable cause that the development will be successful,” said Jeff Longbine, RDA chairman and Emporia city commissioner.
“There’s enough information in the application to proceed,” said RDA president Kent Heermann. “The next step is that this goes to the city commission, and if they decide to create the TIF district, then there’s much more detailed information that needs to be gathered to validate the application.”
A third party will need to study Christie’s sales and property tax revenue projections to determine whether they are accurate, should the city commission decide to approve the TIF/TDD application.
The application will go to the city commission at its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Oct. 15. There will be a public hearing before the commission votes on the application.
At the same meeting, city commissioners will consider the recommendations of the Emporia-Lyon County Metropolitan Area Planning Commission that relate to the proposed development. During a meeting Sept. 23, the planning board voted to recommend that the city deny two requests.
One was from DJ Christie, Inc., for a planned unit development of commercial and retail development to bring in Lowe’s as an anchor store with outpads for other retailers such as restaurants. The second request denied by the board came from the city to modify the comprehensive plan future land use map to allow the 24th Avenue and Industrial Road tract to be rezoned for the proposed development.