OEDC approves new enterprise zone, Main Street facelift

The Olney Economic Development Corporation board of directors on March 6 voted to hire two firms to create and implement plans for an enterprise zone to attract businesses and to spruce up downtown. The plan is to hire one firm for planning and engineering, and another firm to create a tax incremental reinvestment zone (TIRZ) along Main Street (State Highway 114) and State Highway 79, and to rehabilitate the facades on the commercial buildings within the zone.

The creation of such a district, or zone, will allow for developing tax revenue for infrastructure and financial support for multiple residential and commercial developments and enhancements within the specific zone.

The OEDC approved the overall plan, with a cap or maximum expenditure by OEDC of $120,000 per year.

“We are going to be looking forward to contracting with both groups for planning … the downtown stretch as well as the Olney Savings area and where we ended up with the possibility of development … of the airport and possibly the lake,” OEDC board president Johnny Moore said. “We have to do a public notice and have a 60 day window before we can spend any funds.”

The OEDC board decided to hire two firms to accelerate the processes and because they complement one another, Mr. Moore said.

One firm will come up with a citywide plan and a footprint for the TIRZ, and apply for grants and other funding to start trying to attract new businesses and bolster existing businesses. The other would carry out the plan, and would take the lead in beautifying and enhancing the downtown buildings, OEDC executive director Tom Parker said.

Mr. Parker envisions a TIRZ footprint stretching two to three blocks wide along State Highways 114 and 79, and toward Olney Airport and Olney Lake.

The plan will consider new uses for the empty Olney Savings and Loan building, and the Hamilton Hotel building, which the City owns through the EDC, and to find commercial uses for the airport and lake.

The plan also includes attracting new businesses to town to try to increase the tax base. Any additional revenue generated by the TIRZ could be used to pay for utility lines, streets and other infrastructure for new housing, the board said.

“If big box stores come in and spend money here, the money that they spend and the tax increase that they bring that money goes to building infrastructure for housing so we can move things forward,” Mr. Parker said. “The purpose is to try to fund infrastructure.”

The City and applicable taxing districts would split the new revenue with the TIRZ, which can also use the funds to repair roads, infrastructure, and buildings.

“It doesn’t change anything the property owners are paying. Any additional – the county, the school and the hospital district have to agree to it and the city – the property value is effectively set at that number,” board member Phil Jeske said. “If people come in and build things … the tax on that goes into the TIRZ. [The tax revenue] can only be spent within the TIRZ and it is split at a ratio that the taxing entity and the TIRZ agree. That’s how you fund improvements in those areas.”

The TIRZ also could encourage development near the airport and at Olney Lake, Mr. Parker said. “Other parts of town can be added as we go but we’ve got to start with something we can manage.”