City Commission Won't Take Up TIF Extension Until After Election

The city commission won’t vote on whether to extend TIF 97 until after election day. Such is the takeaway from a memo written by Mayor Amy Shamroe and included in the packet for tonight’s city commission meeting, which has a busy agenda that also includes items pertaining to FishPass, the city’s homelessness situation, the Hall Street housing development, and a potential new sidewalk span on Eastern Avenue.

The Traverse City Downtown Development Authority (DDA) voted in August to approve Moving Downtown Forward, the name for a proposed 30-year extension of TIF 97 that has been in the works for years. As Shamroe wrote in her memo, the “normal process for a TIF plan after passing the DDA board” is for the city commission to review the plan, set a public hearing to engage community input, and then eventually vote on whether to adopt said plan.

However, because the November 5 ballot includes two proposals that would amend the city charter and change the approval process for TIF plans, Shamroe wrote that the city commission “will not take any action on the Moving Downtown Forward plan until after the November 2024 election.” That decision may mean that, if the two charter amendments pass, the city and the DDA may be required to put Moving Downtown Forward to a public vote. In such a situation, it could be another year before the matter makes it to the ballot.

On the other hand, there are questions of whether the TIF-related amendments are even legal, which could put the ball squarely back in the city commission’s court after the election, regardless of how city residents vote.

Commissioners will discuss the matter at tomorrow’s meeting, scheduled for 7pm at the Governmental Center.

Also on the meeting agenda:

>Commissioners will vote on whether to authorize “an agreement for the acceptance of a $1 million Michigan Department of Energy, Great Lakes and Environment (EGLE) Grant for demolition of the Union Street Dam and construction of a new low-flow and arced-labyrinth weir and nature-like bypass channel for FishPass.”

>Board members will consider “authorizing a two-year agreement with Jubilee House for it to provide day shelter services” for the city’s population of people experiencing homelessness. If the agreement is approved, the city will provide $40,000 per year to Jubilee House for the next two fiscal years to pay for the services.

>Commissioners will discuss “authorizing a release of restrictive covenant acknowledging that the workforce housing Payment-in-Lieu-of-Taxes (PILOT) arrangement for 125 and 145 Hall Street is terminated, in light of the project's inability to obtain financing.” Developer Innovo had sought a PILOT arrangement from the city to include a workforce housing component in its Hall Street development, called the Godfrey. Innovo informed the city late last month that it had been “unable to obtain adequate financing through the Workforce Housing PILOT Program for the development or rehabilitation of the properties by the September 30, 2024, deadline specified in the Restrictive Covenant.” As a result, the project will still move forward, but won’t include workforce housing.

>The board will consider a request from Commissioner Tim Werner “for the City Commission to direct the City Manager to install a sidewalk on south side of Eastern Avenue between Milliken Drive and Peninsula Drive.” In a memo dated October 3, Werner wrote that neighbors have been asking for this sidewalk for several years. Due to multiple factors, he explained, the issue has repeatedly fallen by the wayside. Werner asked that, “for the safety and comfort of pedestrians, and with being requested for many years by neighbors,” the sidewalk be built “with a target completion date of May 1, 2025.”