Jasper Redevelopment Commission to explore financing options for master plan

The Jasper Redevelopment Commission agreed to contract services with Umbaugh and Associates to explore options to fund the Jasper Downtown/Riverfront Master Plan.

Gary Malone, a partner with Umbaugh and Associates, outlined the plan his firm will move forward with in identifying those projects that the public would like to see move forward as well as their funding.

“One of those options has to do with the use of tax incremental financing,” Malone told the commission. “This next phase would be to explore the creation of a TIF area.”

Tax increment financing assumes that improvements made to an area of the city will increase the property values and potentially create jobs. Those increases will then create incremental tax gains and those increments will be used to pay the debt created to make the improvements.

Huntingburg has utilized TIF districts in several improvements — most recently in erosion control measures along Sixth Street near the OFS Brands headquarters — and expansion projects and credits them with allowing the city to invest $500,000 in kind towards the city’s Stellar Grant projects.

Umbaugh will conduct studies to determine what the base tax rates are for the areas affected by improvements so they can identify those increment tax increases.

“The other part of the process is the statutory process … a piece of that is the development of what is called the tax impact statement,” Malone said. “We will explore what are the economic impacts on the schools, the county, the library and all the other taxing jurisdictions in play here.”

The agreement is not to exceed $7,500 for Umbaugh’s services.

An open house is planned for later this month to receive public input on the downtown/riverfront developments. Ed Curtin, with Columbus-based Latitudes, stated the next step is to have a public open house to give residents a chance to come in and view the plans and ask questions. From this, Curtin will develop a proposal for implementing the plan — including an economic development plan — for the city to potentially take action on in September.

The plan will include an economic development plan for the area.

Redevelopment commission member Andrew Seger pointed out that he has received comments from some community members citing concern for funding the improvements in the downtown. Columbus, Indiana, has been cited as a model for downtown redevelopment, but Seger stated Jasper lacks a similar size corporate partner — Cummins is headquartered in Columbus.

According to Curtin, Cummins was not involved in the development of the funding plan for Columbus although they did become a major player in the completion of the plan. “When we started the process in Columbus, Cummins was supportive but did not become actively involved until much later in the process,” he said. “In terms of the funding part of it, Cummins didn’t play a big role. It was really how the whole area was crafted and how the economic development plan was put together that made a big difference.”

The two firms, Umbaugh and Latitudes, will work together to craft similar plans for Jasper’s downtown development.