February 15, 2022–3:42 p.m.
STAFF REPORTS
The Rome Redevelopment Committee discussed a possible Tax Allocation District for the Martha Berry Boulevard corridor during a called meeting Tuesday.
Committee chair Jim Bojo said he has been approached by a couple of developers wanting a TAD for properties fronting Martha Berry from just north of Turner McCall to the south of Harbin Clinic.
Under a TAD, net new property taxes go back to the developer for a certain period of time to help defray development costs.
City Manager Sammy Rich said for the city, a TAD for Martha Berry makes a lot of sense.
“We want to grow our tax base, but what we are doing by creating a TAD is saying we’ll forego that for a number of years,” he said. “It’s very similar to what we do in our industrial recruitment when we do a tax abatement. We do tax abatements when an industry comes and locates here, we need the nvestment and we need the jobs, so we forego taxes for whatever period of time that is.”
Rich said a study was done a little while back, analyzing seven hypothetical parcels and the results were positive.
The committee gave Rich the go-ahead to getting updated numbers for a formal presentation.