Council adopts ordinance authorizing TIF and service payments in lieu of taxes for downtown project

The London City Council voted to adopt Ordinance 20924, declaring improvements to certain real property in the city to be a public purpose and authorizing a tax-increment financing (TIF) agreement that will require annual service payments in lieu of property taxes.

A council member moved to amend the ordinance to insert the approved school compensation agreement as an attachment. “It’s actually not changing anything about the language of the ordinance itself, but just the attachments,” the council member said during the meeting, noting the London City School Board had met earlier in the week to approve the compensation agreement.

After the amendment was seconded, council members voted to adopt the ordinance as amended. The ordinance’s text, as read to council, lists multiple referenced code sections and provisions related to urban redevelopment and tax exemption for improvements.

The council did not discuss detailed terms of the developer agreement during the public meeting beyond saying the school compensation agreement had been added to the ordinance package. The ordinance text as presented referenced sections listed phonically in the meeting transcript (for example, “5 7 0 9.41, 0.42, 0.43, 0.832, and 0.85”), which the council cited as the legal basis for declaring the redevelopment a public purpose and establishing a TIF fund.

Ordinance 20924 was announced as adopted at the meeting’s conclusion of that agenda item.