A proposal to create a new tax increment finance (TIF) district aimed at spurring development along East Green Bay Street went before the Shawano Plan Commission on Tuesday.
The plan will next go to a public hearing before the commission, tentatively scheduled for June 4.
The map of the proposed district is still being finalized. As currently envisioned, it would stretch from mid-block between Sawyer and Andrews streets east to roughly midway between Airport Drive and Rusch Road.
It would encompass more than 100 properties, but would zig-zag around those properties that are sufficiently developed, including a major detour around the Shawano County Fairgrounds.
The goal is to include properties that need improvement or assistance toward making improvements, City Administrator Brian Knapp said.
Knapp said it would be similar to the TIF district set up for Main Street and would be aimed at assisting properties that are “under-utilized or in potential need of development or re-development.”
TIF districts are areas where municipalities invest in infrastructure, such as sewer and water, to attract development where it might not otherwise occur, or to make improvements, such as eliminating blight.
Whatever increase in tax revenue that results from development in those districts goes to paying back the debt the municipality incurred from making improvements to the district.
“We’re trying to improve the economic value of those properties to the city and the community,” Knapp said.
Other taxing entities — including Shawano County, the Shawano School District and Northeast Wisconsin Technical College — would have to approve of the plan, because they would not share in any additional revenue from new development in the district until the improvements are paid off.
A Joint Review Board made up of those entities will get a look at the proposal before the public hearing. The board will then have final say on the matter after the plan has gone back to the Plan Commission and the Shawano Common Council for approval.
Shawano has four active TIF districts: Raasch Industrial Park; a residential area targeted for blight elimination from Main Street east to Lincoln street and Zingler Avenue south to Pearl Avenue; a downtown TIF district running from the Main Street bridge south to Sunset Avenue; and the Bay Lakes Industrial Park.