ShawneeDispatch.com

Before the Shawnee City Council considers its first tax increment financing application since the city adopted a policy allowing the economic development tool, Council members will review all the requirements that go along with it.

Council members on the Public Works and Safety Committee were to review on Tuesday the steps of the tax increment financing, or TIF, process in preparation for considering the first official action application for Cobblestone Village development, scheduled for the full Council's next meeting on Monday, Aug. 25.

Tax increment financing districts are generally used in areas where property is blighted or has extreme development challenges. A TIF district is created around the development property, allowing developers to keep taxes generated from improvements made within the district to help pay for the cost of development. The city established a policy allowing TIF districts to encourage economic development in February 2006.

Cobblestone Village is actually one of the most recent TIF applications to be made to the city, made Nov. 16, 2007. Earlier applications were made for other areas, including land south of Johnson Drive at Renner Road and land along the western side of Interstate 435 between Johnson Drive and Shawnee Mission Parkway. However, those applications have not advanced to the point of coming before the Council.

Information from Tuesday's meeting was not available at press time, but Bryan Kidney, city finance director, said the meeting was to make sure the Council was up to speed on the TIF process and would include more in-depth information about the particulars of creating a TIF district.

"We'll talk about the intense due diligence of what city does before it even comes to Council," Kidney said, explaining the city hires an outside firm to research the application. "They look into a lot of the developer's information, at financial statements and bank information, to make sure the city wouldn't ever get into a partnership that isn't best for the taxpayers."

The city enters into a funding agreement with each TIF applicant to ensure the city is reimbursed for any application costs; so far, the city has spent $18,816 on the Cobblestone application.

One detail the city has yet to finalize with Cobblestone developers is the amount of time the developers can keep the increment taxes; the maximum amount of time allowed in a TIF is 20 years. The form of financing the project will use and the costs that developers can use increment tax funds for also are undecided.

But Kidney said the city was scheduled to meet with the developer later this week and should have enough information to move forward in establishing a TIF district next week.

The developer of the Cobblestone Village is Jerry Bichelmeyer, who previously was behind the development of Attic Business Park at Shawnee Mission Parkway and Vista Drive. Cobblestone will be a mostly residential project intended for seniors 55 and older on land formerly owned by Bichelmeyer's late father, on the west side of Pflumm Road in the 6100 block.

Bichelmeyer said the current plan for the project includes 70,000 square feet of commercial space along Pflumm, and to the west, 110 maintenance-provided villas, each 1,500 to 2,000 square feet. Also planned for the property is an 80-bed senior independent living apartment building.

The plan requires six houses and duplexes along Pflumm to be razed, and Bichelmeyer said purchase agreements for those homes are mostly completed, contingent on the TIF application's approval. The city also preliminarily has agreed to swap some of Bichelmeyer's land for land in Pflumm/ Bichelmeyer Park to the north.

Bichelmeyer said he looked forward to completing the application process and bringing the application before the Council.

"Since it's the first TIF the city's done, it's a learning process," Bichelmeyer said. "But we're very proud of the project; it's a very upscale development."