Decatur To Hold Public Hearing on “Urban Redevelopment Plan”
Decatur Metro | December 2, 2010If that generic plan name in the post title has you thinking that the Decatur City Commission is planning to regress back to its ideas of the early 1970s and redevelop all of Decatur ala Le Corbusier (Dammit! I said more towers! More giant, lifeless parks!), you can rest assured that this public hearing has nothing to do with anything like that. (Does anyone have first hand accounts about some of the towers the city wanted to build around Church Street in the 1970s that freaked the population out and sent the then-City Manager packing? I’d love to hear some of those.)
Instead, this public hearing concerns the city’s plan to designate two city properties as “urban redevelopment areas” so they are eligible for financing through the Federal Government “Build America Bonds”, which include a 35% subsidy from the Fed on interest paid. The two properties under consideration for redevelopment using the program are the Fire Station #1/Rec Center property between Sycamore and Trinity, and the Public Works property on Talley Street. You can read through the proposed plan HERE.
So, if you have issues, joys or concerns to express to your commissioners about either of these projects, clear your calendar for Monday, December 6th and be heard as a member of the public. (I assume it will take place BEFORE the city commission meeting, but I’ll have to check with the city – as the press release does not specify.)
There had originally been talk of including the undeveloped “Trinity Triangle” site in the redevelopment area, but City Manager Peggy Merriss tells me that they decided not to include it at this time, and can always go back and add it later “if it makes sense”.
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The link to the proposal isn’t working for me.
My apologies my good man. Should work now.
Wouldn’t it be great if a redevelopment eventually brings a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s??!!
That 35% Federal subsidy exists because interest on these bonds is subject to taxes. These are not ordinary municipal bonds with regards to the interest rate paid; they pay about 35% more and then the interest is taxed.
However, they are like municipal bonds in that the taxpayers will be paying on these things for decades. The Commissioners should go for a regular old bond referendum like they did a few years back. Maybe if they were planning on calling a binding, city-wide vote on this issue they could be called to account for how miserably they budgeted the last bond issue.
So J’s Kid — are you saying we come out about the same as with regular bonds?
Price-wise, theoretically, yes. However there are lots of cities and states trying to beat the year-end deadline. That means there will be a glut of these things in the market and the interest rate will be somewhat higher than might otherwise be expected. Decatur might actually be able to get a cheaper rate if they tried for the regular general obligation that they issued just a few years back. That would require a referendum and that is something they really don’t seem to want to do. Instead they seem to be willing to oblige Decatur without the voters input.
Do you think you’ll attend the hearing on Monday?
Why am I not surprised.