Developers in Bozeman have proposed a five-story, mixed-use housing project right by the former Northern Pacific Depot on the city's east side. The Yards will include 39 residential units and ground floor retail space.
Urban renewal program manager David Fine says the city commission adopted the northeast urban renewal district in 2006.
"Essentially, the City Commission had a 3/2 vote in favor of granting TIF assistance, tax increment, and finance assistance to support the public infrastructure components of a redevelopment project in the northeast neighborhood," Fine says.
What kind of infrastructure?
"In the northeast neighborhood near this project, there is an absence of streets, there is a lack of curb, gutter, sidewalk, 100-year-old clay sewer lines, and the absence of sewer lines," Fine says.
With the help of TIF assistance, "A project that invests in the area and that pays to upgrade this public infrastructure can then be reimbursed with the tax revenue their project generates," Fine says.
In a 1910 photo of the historic Northern Pacific Depot, some parts of the northeast neighborhood have remained untouched. The Idaho Pole Superfund site is on the other side of the tracks. Fine says it's a neighborhood in transition.
"This has been an industrial area for a long time, so you had the homes of working people intermixed with warehouses and commercial buildings intermixed with the railyard," Fine says.
If TIF funding is approved, the developers will start working on the infrastructure this summer.
"For this project, it's $3.6 million in tax reimbursement," Fine says.
Fine says the city needs a tool to update all the infrastructure deficiencies in the neighborhood.
"I think a lot of times when people read the headline we are giving a developer $3.6 million, they think that this is their tax money going to support a certain kind of development, and in this case, we wouldn't be able to reimburse the developer if they didn't do the project," Fine says.
The bottom line is, "The developer is fronting all of the money to do this infrastructure and is only getting paid back after they've completed the project," Fine says.
Fine says the project is still being reviewed by community development as of Wednesday.
