Proposed Tax Break to Fight Blight

It’s worth reading the proposed ordinance. It attempts to assist blighted neighborhoods by creating incentives for infill. In doing that, it provides a 5-year, renewable tax abatement for the value of any improivement made to a property in a conservation, redevelopment or rehabilitation district. The abatement travels with the property, so it can be flipped to a new owner. As an example, buy a lot in Blackwell for $25k. Put a half million dollar house on it. Pay taxes on the original $25K only for five years, unless a future council extends the abatement period. So in the interest of fighting blight, we set up special classes of neighborhoods to receive tax abatements, we encourage gentrification in older neighborhoods, we raise the taxes of neighbors whose assessments go up but don’t have an abatement, we shift cost of government to neighborhoods who are not included in the program. It is interesting that in the original distribution of the announcement, the real estate community and the homebuilders were not notified of the meeting.

also interesting is the timing of the meeting. having it in the middle of the day in the middle of the week is not fair for those who work 8-5. is an evening time, when most are off, not available?