(Spirit Lake)– A public hearing on a proposal to form a tax increment finance district to cover the cost of extending infrastructure for a proposed development on the east side of Big Spirit Lake drew more questions than answers at Tuesday’s Dickinson county board of supervisors meeting.
Jerry Jones is requesting the TIF for a residential development he’s planning for that area which would be annexed into the city of Orleans.
Under the proposal, the county would be responsible for building a road into the development to the tune of 580-thousand dollars and for extending water and sewer for an additional 620-thousand. The city’s share for extending a water main to the site would be 30-thousand dollars. But Mayor Carlton Mitchell is concerned the cost could go much higher. He’s also worried the city of Orleans “could get stuck holding the bag” if the development fails to produce the increments as proposed. A projection as to how much money the TIF would generate wasn’t immediately available. As a result, the supervisors voted to continue a public hearing on the matter until 10:00 a.m. June 20th.
The Orleans City Council voted three-to-nothing recently, with two members absent, to approve the TIF proposal. The Mayor has yet to sign off on it, though. The county’s Planning and Zoning Commission met in a special session Monday and voted to recommend the supervisors approve it as well.
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