TIF Commission, developers to meet on Prestwick plan

Developers will push for tax-increment financing for a 900-acre residential subdivision when they meet with the city of Cape Girardeau's TIF Commission on May 15.

The commission is scheduled to meet at 8 p.m. at the Osage Community Centre.

"It will be more of a status meeting to bring everyone up to date as to what has been going on," said Al Spradling III, Cape Girardeau's former mayor and the chairman of the commission.

This will be the commission's first meeting since the Cape Girardeau Board of Education rejected the financing plan on March 17. The school board voiced concern that tax abatements in the plan could hurt the district, which depends on local property taxes for 65 percent of its annual budget.

The school board refused to back the plan even though developers said they were prepared to provide the school district land and $8 million to pay for construction of a new school.

Cord Dombrowski, a partner in the Prestwick Plantation development, said the developers want the commission to make a recommendation to the city council, which will make the final decision.

Dombrowski said developers want tax-increment financing to help bring utilities to the proposed, upscale development near the Dalhousie Golf Club, off Bloomfield Road on the western edge of Cape Girardeau. The project would involve the construction of more than 700 homes over the next several decades.

Tax-increment financing is an economic tool used to encourage development. The increased taxes generated from the TIF district would go to fund infrastructure in the subdivision area for the next 23 years, under the plan put forth by developers.

Dombrowski said the commission needs to review the report from the city's independent consultant, Chauncy Buchheit of the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission, as it looks to make a recommendation to the city council.

A starting point

Dombrowski said the Buchheit report is a good starting point for discussion. "I think we have some common ground here," he said.

Buchheit's report proposed $7.2 million for infrastructure reimbursement. Developers originally asked for $24 million.

Dombrowski said he'd like to see the $7 million figure raised slightly to incorporate costs involved in bringing electricity to the site.

Spradling said the commission at its May 15 meeting may set a public hearing. By law, the commission must give 45 days advance notice of such a hearing.

The commission is required to hold a formal hearing on the TIF request before it can make any recommendation to the city council, Spradling said.

The school district has no legal say in the matter, but Mayor Jay Knudtson said last month that it seems unlikly the city council will go against the wishes of the school board.

Dombrowski said city officials need to consider that the project would be an economic boon for the area.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123