Jasper Redevelopment meeting: Money and action on Downtown Master Plan discussed

The Jasper Redevelopment Commission is taking action to find an engineering firm to develop steps to create the vision painted in the downtown portion of the completed Master Plan.

The commission will create requests for proposals to be issued to interested firms giving them guidance in creating the plans and costs associated with developing the Courthouse Square and one-block along each road entering the square.

The plan created by CityVision, which included estimates based on the firm’s experience, will provide the guide to create the project phases of the master plan.

As they move forward, discussion turned to how to finance the future projects.

Mayor Terry Seitz, who was in attendance at the meeting, told the committee that he and city staff had met with representatives with the U.S. Department of Agriculture who gave them an overview of federal assistance that may be available for the development of the Downtown + Riverfront Master Plan.

“We have confirmed over the last month that whatever we do, including the downtown, there will be private dollars and other funding sources available,” Mayor Seitz said. “We often assume that as a city, we’re in this alone. And we’re not. How we look at putting those packages and deals together may be rather daunting. But in the end, it is leveraging what dollars we have as revenue on EDIT or as reserve on EDIT and doing much, much more.”

The mayor pointed out that The Lofts at St. Joseph’s senior living project in Huntingburg being constructed by Miller-Valentine Group — the same group working on the JOFCO/Vine Street workforce development housing — had eight different sources of funding.

According to the mayor, as the city looks at these large redevelopment projects, the economic development income tax funds and tax increment finance funds can be used to leverage these other funding sources to accomplish more with the city money.

In planning the downtown projects and how they are incrementally created through improvements of the streets, sidewalks, storm water and utilities, the mayor said the city can also better plan those improvements with current taxes and EDIT funds. Those funds allocated for those departments to complete maintenance and repairs this year can be used in coordination with the master plan projects as they come to fruition.

“This lends itself to some staging or phasing pretty easily,” Seger agreed. “There are portions of this project that are already imbedded in other city priorities and city budgets.”

Seger pointed out the improved lighting in the downtown area that was accomplished in 2014. “That was in the [Master] plan but it’s already done,” Seger said.

Ray Howard, who serves on the commission and is a member of the common council, asked Clerk/Treasurer Juanita Boehm if the plans would impact the upcoming city budget hearing. Boehm said there would likely be discussion about funding for the projects but she felt it was unlikely that any would be allocated for the projects yet.

Seitz reminded the commission that about $450,000 in EDIT funds had not been allocated to any projects for 2015’s budget and that money would likely roll over into the 2016 budget. “We would literally have a third, roughly, of our EDIT budget that is not committed to anything at all this year,” he said.

In the meantime, to move forward, a team consisting of city staff representing several departments including planning, engineering, utilities and legal will create a rough draft. That draft will then be circulated through the redevelopment commission, downtown merchants and the Redevelop Old Jasper Action Coalition for comments and recommendations.

From those recommendations a request for proposal will be created, sent to the council for approval and then submitted to engineering firms with the goal of having a firm under contract by the end of the year.

The council also took the following action.

–Hired Umbaugh and Associates of Indianapolis to help the city the filing requirements for the city’s new tax-increment financing district for a fee not to exceed $5,000. The commission will forward the decision to the Jasper Common Council for final approval. Under the contract, Umbaugh will assist the city for the first year to assist the city in handling the filing requirements in house for the future. Additionally, Umbaugh will help establish the base values of properties in the tax increment finance district created last year. They will also track the trending changes in value from new developments to determine the property tax revenue that will be captured by the tax district.