[6:54] Good evening. I call to order this June

[6:56] 23rd, 2026 meeting of the Community

[6:58] Development Agency. I'm Mindy Romp, the

[7:00] mayor of Blair, and I'm pleased you have

[7:02] joined us this evening. This is a public

[7:03] meeting and you are part of the process.

[7:06] I encourage you to participate, ask

[7:07] questions, and share your thoughts, and

[7:08] I want you to feel comfortable, and I

[7:10] will do everything that I can to make

[7:11] sure that your voice is heard. We do

[7:13] have several rules to help us proceed

[7:15] with the meeting, and I ask that you

[7:16] please keep them in mind. Please turn

[7:18] off your cell phones. If you need to

[7:19] take a call, step outside the chamber.

[7:21] When you wish to speak, simply raise

[7:23] your hand, call you forward to the

[7:24] podium. Brenda Wheeler, our city clerk,

[7:27] must record who you are, so please state

[7:30] your name, spell your last name, and

[7:32] state your address. We are asking that

[7:35] everyone practices mutual respect and

[7:37] hospitality towards one another this

[7:39] evening. I appreciate that we have an

[7:41] active

[7:42] and that you are very passionate about

[7:44] voicing your opinion. However, we are

[7:47] going to ask that decorum is maintained

[7:49] tonight. Please no speaking or murmuring

[7:51] when someone is at the podium. We are

[7:53] asking that you refrain from clapping as

[7:55] it is disruptive to the flow of the

[7:56] meeting.

[7:57] We want you to be respectful to everyone

[7:59] and their time. If you are in support of

[8:01] a speaker, simply raise your hand and

[8:03] that will be sufficient.

[8:05] Keep your remarks brief, about 3 minutes

[8:06] so that others have the opportunity to

[8:08] speak and we are asking that you keep it

[8:10] to 3 minutes tonight and you only come

[8:12] to the podium one time.

[8:15] Please direct your remarks to either

[8:16] myself, city council, or to city staff.

[8:19] A copy of the open meetings act has been

[8:21] posted by both exits and we are going to

[8:23] begin with the approval of the minutes

[8:25] from the 28 20 Excuse me, the April

[8:27] 20th, 2026 meeting.

[8:30] >> So moved. Second.

[8:32] >> We have a motion and a second to approve

[8:33] the minutes from the April 28th meeting.

[8:35] Please register your vote.

[8:46] » All council members present voting aye.

[8:48] >> Motion is approved. Item number three.

[8:51] Consideration and potential

[8:52] recommendation for approval to the city

[8:54] council via resolution 2026-002

[8:57] of a tax increment financing

[8:59] redevelopment plan entitled

[9:00] redevelopment plan for SJAV tenant

[9:03] redevelopment project. Mr. Green.

[9:06] >> Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor,

[9:07] council members and the audience. Phil

[9:09] Green, city administrator for the city

[9:11] of Blair.

[9:13] Um I Before Michael Sands, who's the

[9:15] city's tip attorney, gets up and kind of

[9:17] explains a little bit about this revised plan, I wanted to just kind

[9:22] of lay out for all of you and for those

[9:23] who are listening a little bit of the

[9:25] ground rules more and a little bit of

[9:27] kind of a reminder of what's going on right now.

[9:31] You you are not sitting as the city

[9:33] council right now. You're sitting as the

[9:34] CDA, the community development Agency.

[9:37] And that specific statutory role is

[9:40] going to be different than your role

[9:42] will be during the council meeting that

[9:44] will be coming up later on tonight. Um

[9:47] these redevelopment plans um by state

[9:49] statute go to the planning commission

[9:52] and the planning commission's role is to

[9:54] evaluate the plan and to determine

[9:56] solely whether it's in conformance with

[9:59] the comprehensive plan, which is

[10:01] ultimately kind of their Bible that they

[10:03] judge everything on is that

[10:04] comprehensive

[10:06] uh and whether whether this kind of

[10:08] development and the use of TIF for these

[10:10] kind of activities would be in

[10:12] conformance with that comprehensive

[10:13] plan. That's the recommendation the

[10:15] planning commission makes.

[10:17] For you as the CDA, you're going to be

[10:19] much more involved in the technical

[10:21] aspects of how TIF works, the financing

[10:24] of it, uh and whether especially it

[10:27] meets uh the ultimate criteria of that

[10:29] cost-benefit analysis. Um when it comes

[10:33] to whether it's a good development or

[10:35] not, good for the community, that's the

[10:37] role for the council.

[10:38] Uh and ultimately that's what the

[10:39] council is going to decide. What you're

[10:41] looking at right now is a little bit

[10:43] more narrow and focused. And so I just

[10:46] want to remind the audience of that as

[10:47] well.

[10:48] There will be uh the official

[10:49] opportunity later during the council

[10:51] meeting for the public hearing and

[10:53] that's really the prime opportunity for

[10:55] the citizens to get up and comment on a TIF proposal and this redevelopment

[11:00] plan. Uh if they have questions,

[11:02] comments about some of the technical

[11:04] aspects of the plan, that would be

[11:06] appropriate for the CD this CDA meeting

[11:09] uh as well. But but ultimately, if

[11:11] they're just don't think it's good for

[11:13] the community, that really is more of a

[11:15] council decision, not a CDA decision. So

[11:18] again, I'd encourage you to pay close

[11:20] attention uh as Michael goes over this

[11:22] with the plan, especially from staff's

[11:24] perspective.

[11:26] The biggest change in this one is the is

[11:28] the details in the phasing aspect of

[11:31] things. Uh and that it specifically and

[11:33] clearly says that when it comes to phase

[11:35] two, which in this revised plan is the

[11:38] commercial lots, and then phase three,

[11:40] which would be potentially additional

[11:43] multi-family housing units, that that

[11:46] both of those two phases are absolutely

[11:49] contingent upon a council in the future

[11:51] deciding that that's what you want to

[11:53] do. But if you were to approve this plan

[11:56] tonight, ultimately it would go back if

[12:00] the council ultimately would approve it

[12:01] tonight,

[12:02] then a redevelopment contract would be

[12:05] written up that would deal just with

[12:07] phase one. And that's the only TIF that

[12:10] would be involved would be the TIF

[12:12] dollar amounts for phase one, not for

[12:14] phase two, not for phase three. Those

[12:17] would have to be decided by a future

[12:18] council sometime if they decided to go

[12:21] forward with that. And it could be this

[12:23] concept that the developers are putting

[12:25] forward, it could be a different concept

[12:27] based on what the council wants to see

[12:29] at that point in time. So that's kind of

[12:30] a significant change in this plan that

[12:33] it tears that phase two, phase three

[12:35] apart, and really just is ultimately

[12:37] going to prevent present phase one to

[12:40] you. And then again, the cost-benefit

[12:42] analysis is critical, and that is in

[12:45] exhibit E, I think it is. And ultimately

[12:47] kind of lays out for you some of the

[12:49] benefits from a financial standpoint,

[12:51] the costs, and then makes the

[12:53] determination that this would be a

[12:55] positive thing from a cost-benefit

[12:57] analysis only.

[12:59] Um

[13:00] Unless you have any questions for me, I

[13:01] will turn it over to Michael Sands,

[13:02] again,

[13:04] attorney for the city regarding TIF

[13:05] projects.

[13:14] » Hello again, Michael Sands, 1700 Farnam,

[13:17] special attorney for the city on TIF

[13:19] matters.

[13:20] So as Phil

[13:22] kind of laid out for you, the main, you

[13:24] know, the the project as a whole, or at

[13:27] least the components of it haven't

[13:29] really changed with respect to um

[13:33] to what's in the plan. It's really the

[13:34] structure and the oversight of of how

[13:37] it's implemented.

[13:39] So,

[13:40] if you'll recall um

[13:42] prior it you know, at least from a

[13:45] timing and sort of division of taxes

[13:48] perspective,

[13:49] it was broken up into kind of three

[13:51] separate areas uh with the the initial

[13:54] multi-family, the commercial element,

[13:57] and then the uh you know, the later on

[13:59] expansion of the multi-family. So, so

[14:01] it's still that, but what is different

[14:04] is

[14:05] uh

[14:06] really just the treatment of of how

[14:08] those three uh three different phases

[14:11] will be approached. So,

[14:13] you know,

[14:14] there's two different kinds of of sort

[14:16] of phasing with these TIF um projects

[14:19] and

[14:20] like I just kind of said, the the one we

[14:23] had before was really to just maximize

[14:25] the amount of you know,

[14:27] the amount of years you could get to

[14:29] each segment of the pro project, but

[14:31] really treating the project as a whole.

[14:33] Uh the TIF amount uh wasn't segmented

[14:36] out between the three

[14:38] separate phases as we'll call them now.

[14:41] Uh so so that's what's what's changed

[14:44] really is that So, the the first phase

[14:46] is is um

[14:48] as Phil outlined,

[14:50] would be that that initial 110

[14:52] multi-family units. Uh so, that's five

[14:55] 22-plexes.

[14:57] Uh the second phase the or the uh is the

[15:01] commercial element there on the boundary

[15:03] of the project site. And then sort of

[15:05] the third phase

[15:07] uh would be the

[15:09] you know, that potential uh expansion of

[15:12] the multi-family.

[15:14] But I think probably the most

[15:17] uh um

[15:18] sort of informative or important part of

[15:21] the plan

[15:23] is contained within section H.

[15:27] So, there's a couple of bullet points

[15:28] there that talk about

[15:31] um

[15:32] Well, it lays out the phases as I just

[15:33] did, but the bullet points below there

[15:36] uh provide some stipulations for phase

[15:38] two and phase three.

[15:40] So, and I won't read it for verbatim,

[15:43] but essentially what it says is that,

[15:45] you know, with respect to phase two,

[15:48] the city the city's willingness to both

[15:50] enter into a redevelopment contract and

[15:52] commit those TIF dollars to issue a TIF

[15:54] note or bond

[15:56] uh is expressly contingent upon the

[15:58] redevelop redeveloper establishing

[16:01] mutually agreeable parameters and or

[16:04] land land control rights or restrictions

[16:06] with respect to the permissible and or

[16:09] not permissible type of commercial

[16:11] improvements developed on such lots. And

[16:14] it goes on to say if that agreement

[16:15] can't be reached, then the city, you

[16:17] know, reserves the right to not enter

[16:19] into a contract and you know, either

[16:22] something else would have to be

[16:24] presented or, you know, the land would

[16:26] perhaps go to a different developer to present something else, but but very

[16:30] basically,

[16:32] that's almost its own own project. The reason for including all the three

[16:37] phases

[16:39] in one plan

[16:40] is so if the, you know, if the plan or

[16:43] if the project doesn't change and you do

[16:46] come to these agreements, you don't have

[16:48] to go through two months of public

[16:49] hearings again uh cuz you have the

[16:51] baseline document. But for each phase,

[16:54] they'll have to come back with a a

[16:55] redevelopment contract for the

[16:57] commercial one. That would be contingent

[16:59] upon um

[17:01] like I just said, having some sort of

[17:03] land control

[17:05] uh

[17:05] or uh land use uh parameters in there.

[17:09] What those are,

[17:11] I assume I will be

[17:13] negotiating on your behalf with the

[17:14] developer. Um I'm sure there are a lot

[17:17] of options. Uh, we just need to figure

[17:19] out

[17:20] sort of what what what route the city

[17:22] wants to go with that. And then for the third phase, which is the expansion

[17:27] of the multi-family,

[17:29] that contingency is really just how how

[17:32] did the first phase do? What's the

[17:34] market demand currently? Cuz we're

[17:35] talking about

[17:37] 5 6 years down the road.

[17:40] Maybe more.

[17:41] Uh, so so what's the landscape look

[17:43] like? Is there still an appetite for

[17:44] more multi-family? Do we feel it's

[17:46] saturated?

[17:48] That sort of thing. And and so it's

[17:49] really in the broad discretion of the

[17:51] council at that point, assuming the

[17:53] developer still wanted to proceed and

[17:54] expand to say, "Well,

[17:56] no, we really don't want more

[17:57] multi-family." Or this is, you know,

[18:00] this has been gangbusters and and yeah,

[18:02] you know,

[18:03] more is needed. So,

[18:06] you're not you know, by splitting them

[18:08] into the three phases and then splitting

[18:10] up the TIF, so the aggregate TIF amount

[18:12] before

[18:14] um,

[18:17] hasn't changed, but the amount that

[18:20] you're committing for each phase has

[18:21] changed. So, for the first phase,

[18:24] it's uh, $2,077,000.

[18:27] For the second phase, it's $689

[18:31] $89,000.

[18:33] And for the third, it's $1.66

[18:36] uh, million. So, instead of entering

[18:38] into redevelopment contract and

[18:40] committing the aggregate amount of that

[18:42] whatever that

Community Development Agency Meeting 06-23-26

Transcript