A public hearing is set for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 20 regarding the updating and extension of the Oxford Community Development Authority’s (OCDA) Downtown Development and Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Plan.
The original OCDA plan ‘sunsets,? or expires, on July 1, 2005. The authority was formed in 1982.
OCDA officials wish to extend the plan (which has been amended and updated to include new projects such as the southeast parking quadrant improvement and expansion plan) to July 1, 2025.
‘The biggest thing that we’ve added in there (the plan) is following the Main Street program,? said OCDA Executive Director Michelle Bishop.
The Main Street Four-Point Approach is a downtown management system, the four points of which include organization, promotion, design and economic restructuring.
‘This is the approach the OCDA has decided to utilize in their management system of the downtown,? Bishop said. ‘You really need this for small downtowns like ours. There constantly needs to be attention paid to the downtown to ensure that things continue to happen and we’re thriving, so we continue to be a strong part of the community.?
‘By putting (the Main Street approach) in the plan that ensures that it’s in place now and as the board changes and people change, we still have this good strong management system in place,? she added.
Bishop said the amended and updated plan does not include any expansion of the OCDA’s district boundaries as revised in 1992. ‘The boundaries won’t change,? she said.
Extending the OCDA plan will mean continuing the TIF Plan, which allows a Downtown Development Authority to capture certain property taxes and use them for economic development purposes in a specifically designation portion of a downtown (i.e. the district boundaries mentioned above).
The OCDA’s TIF Plan was established in 1985, three years after the DDA was formed.
Each year TIF is determined by subtracting the ‘initial assessed value? (the value of property within the DDA boundaries when the TIF Plan was approved by the municipal governing body) from the ‘current assessed value? (the taxable value of the property for that year).
The amount by which the current assessed value exceeds the initial assessed value in any one year is the ‘captured assessed value,? which makes up the annual operating budget for the OCDA.
The tax money collected by the OCDA from the captured assessed value is based on the millage rates of the taxing jurisdictions within the DDA district, which for downtown Oxford includes the village, township, county, township parks and recreation, Oakland Community College, Oxford Public Library operating and bond debt and the township fire bond debt.
None of the above entities can legally opt out of the TIF Plan, according to Bishop. Only school districts can do that because of Proposal A, she said.
Bishop said there are no changes being proposed or made to the TIF Plan. No tax increases are contained in the extension of the TIF Plan, she said.
In addition to receiving input from the public at the April 20 hearing, Bishop is in the process of forming a Citizens District Council (CDC), comprised of nine residents who live within the OCDA district. There are 216 residents currently living in the district, Bishop said.
The CDC will meet one time to review the amended and updated plan and offer ‘observations, comments and suggestions,? Bishop said.
Once the public hearing and CDC meeting has occurred, Bishop said it’s up to the Oxford Village Council in a future vote to decide whether or not to extend the OCDA Downtown Development and TIF Plan.