Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

What is going in in the area that is being cleared out just south of I70 by the Motorcycle museum?

Part of a TIF

This area is part of another TIF the city has created. It is a 75% TIF for ten years. The TIF will divert taxes on the increased valuation of the land and buildings expected top develop here to pay for these improvements. These taxes would have gone to the Pickerington Local Schools and the Violet Township Fire Department. Now only 25% of any increase will be going to the schools and fire department. They are building a road there to run from the traffic signal (first one,)to the area near the AMA. The city is building the road and the costs of this are part of the tax diversion that will occur on any new valuation any commercial brings to this land. The two traffic signals on SR 204 are included in this TIF. The Power Shack is part of the TIF. The clearing of the land is on land owned by Emerald City LLC and I do not know if this is being done by them or being done by the city. More details will come when the bills roll in I guess.

The ''expectations'' the city has for this land include, several hotels, two retail areas, medium to almost large size, several restaurants and assorted other retail/service outlets. The AMA plans to expand its facility and this expansion (since it will increase the valuation of the AMA )will be part of the TIF.

These ''expectations'' mean there is nothing in writing as a promise from any developer! The city has committed the tax base to these improvements on a handshake with the developers. This is also the case in all of the other TIFs they have created. IF enough development does not occur in the ten year time frame, the taxpayers of the city are still responsible for paying the costs of these improvements within that ten year time frame.

The city said they believed the road should be in a TIF because it was a ''difficult'' project because they have to culvert a large stream about halfway back. Difficult, in this case means expensive and the city just thought no developer would do it themselves of course, so they are doing it. Sewer and water service are provided by Fairfield County, so the large costs of such installation that are in other TIFs the city has created are not a part of this as the original developer paid for this installation.

A few questions may be logical, and should have been asked before the TIF was created (via emergency legislation) in my view.

1. Why do we need a TIF to attract retail and commercial to one of the last vacant land intersections on I-70, in a growing, vibrant community with high levels of income?

To be fair, I think the same questions should have been asked about Taylor Square and Marcus are TIFs also.

To also be fair, the land lay little used and below potential while Violet Township had control of it for such a long time. Things and persons are different in the Township now, with more focus on economic development, but the city still has many more tools to create business than a Township has under the current configuration.

I will post more detail on this soon. I received this information from the Tax Incentive Review Council of which I am a member as one of the Violet Township representatives.

Thank you for the quick reply

I will look forward for further details. Thanks for all the great info thus far.