The City of Athens will now see its third Tax Increment Financing district after a vote during Monday’s meeting of the City Council.

The Council members voted unanimously to turn the area from south of Bojangles on U.S. 72 and north of Athens-Limestone Drive on the other side of the highway all the way to Forrest Street into a TIF district.

The vote on the issue was tabled at the previous meeting at the request of Council member Harold Wales, who requested more time to research the proposal.

“Since we have had our last meeting, I have sat down with our attorney, Shane Black, and we went into detail,” Wales said. “He answered all the questions I could think to ask him.”

Wales said he was still not “100% sold” on the new TIF because of its location. He said he would prefer to put such a district at the Tanner interchange “because I’m telling you people, that’s where growth is coming.”

“When Buc-ee’s (Athens) gets there and that interchange gets fixed — the parkway to Huntsville — you’re going to see major growth in that area,” Wales said. “I would like to see us take advantage of that. Where we are going here, I’m not necessarily against it, I’m just not very high on it.”

Background

Black said the philosophy behind a TIF district is a city takes an area that may have not developed as it would like or may be blighted. The city spends money to make upgrades to the area like roads, lighting, sidewalks, sewer, etc.

Creating a TIF does not raise any taxes itself, but if any property values go up because of the improvement, the district would then see an increase in property tax, he said.

“All of that increase in taxes is attributed to the money invested, and over a long period of time, and we typically do these over a 20-year period, as property values rise so do property taxes, and that increase all goes to City of Athens to repay for the money invested,” he said.