By Bob Seidenberg
The Five-Fifths Tax Increment Financing district, the newest of the city’s five active TIF districts, has already amassed close to $1.4 million in incremental revenues — funds that officials are looking to tap to improve housing quality and maintain affordability within the district.
City Council members established the Five-Fifths TIF in October 2021. The district encompasses approximately 284 parcels of land stretching east and west of Green Bay Road in the city’s Fifth Ward.
TIF districts are a tool used by municipalities to spur development. In a district, the tax increment — the difference between the property tax revenues when the property went into the TIF and the revenues generated on the property as it’s improved — remains in the district, to be used for infrastructure improvements and other possibilities specified under state law.
The increment for the Five-Fifths district stood at $1.39 million as of Nov. 19, said Paul Zalmezak, the city’s economic development manager, at a recent meeting of the district’s advisory committee. Officials estimated a total budget of $89.25 million over the 23-year life of the TIF, with $9.75 million projected for rehabilitation costs.
Much of the early increment has come from the nine-story Trulee Evanston senior living development located at 1815 Ridge Ave.
Identify group in need of funds
The Trulee site was vacant at the time the TIF was adopted, Zalmezak noted, and thus generating little in the way of revenue. The building is now occupied and its property taxes comprise the bulk of the TIF funds so far. In addition, the city has an agreement with the two public school districts that they will also share some of the additional revenues collected.
Fifth Ward Council Member Bobby Burns, chair of the advisory committee, said at the Dec. 19 meeting that the revenue “is going to come in a little bit at a time.”
For the time being, he said, “let’s figure out who are the people that we absolutely want to give housing rehab money right now.”
Simultaneously, he suggested the committee should tend to small-business needs, infrastructure and “supporting our parks and public spaces” — all eligible uses of TIF funding.
In the 2021 resolution establishing the district, the City Council committed to using TIF funds “for residential repairs and improvements to encourage home ownership retention and to improve and maintain existing rental housing as desired by existing homeowners and allow aging in place.”
Members of the committee, which was established to review and provide recommendations on TIF expenditures, spent much of the nearly two-hour meeting discussing the eligibility criteria for the funds.
The Five-Fifths TIF includes 71 single-family homes, 77 apartment buildings with two to six units and a dozen multi-family buildings with 12 units or more.
“Housing rehab grants from cities generally aim to improve housing quality, enhance safety and support affordability,” city officials wrote in a memo, “especially for low and moderate income residents.”
