Over the past 20 years, the town of Jaffrey has utilized tax increment finance (TIF) districts to assist in building up two key areas in town: the Stone Arch Bridge Business District and downtown.
Planning and Economic Development Director Jo Anne Carr said both TIF districts were founded in 1999 with the intention of investing in infrastructure to facilitate industrial development in the Stone Arch Bridge Business District – comprised of Old Sharon Road, Hadley Road, Coll’s Farm Road, and Maria Drive – and to create and maintain a Main Street program.
“It’s an intention to reinvest in the district where the increment was adopted,” Carr said. “In a way, it guarantees investment to those specific areas.”
A TIF district is a development tool that allows towns to make public improvements and encourage development in a given area by capturing the incremental taxes raised in that area from new construction, expansion, or property renovation.
Tax dollars in a TIF district are captured because when a district is established, the base assessment from that year continues to pay taxes, while any additional tax dollars generated in future years are set aside for dedicated use in the district.
“I think there is a misconception that it’s an additional tax,” Carr said. “It is reinvesting in the neighborhoods.”
Captured tax dollars cannot be carried over from year to year, Carr said, so both TIF districts routinely return money to the town’s general fund which is used to help offset the town’s tax rate.
It is anticipated that the two districts will return a combined $213,816 in unexpended revenues at the year’s end, which is just over 40 percent of the $525,510 in captured taxes estimated to be generated from the districts in 2019.
“I don’t expend all the funds,” Carr said. “I’m constrained by the proposals that have been made.” Carr said each TIF district has a specific plan that must be adhered to. Any changes must be brought before voters at Town Meeting.
Car said the impetus behind the Stone Arch Bridge TIF District was to repair the bridge on Old Sharon Road near Route 202 and to construct water mains on Old Sharon Road and Hadley Road.
By doing these two projects, and spending some money on marketing the area, the town has been able to promote business growth in the area over the past 20 years.
Carr anticipates that the district will dissolve in 2033, after the water main bond has been paid off. The bridge bond will be paid off in 2021.
“We’ve seen investments in that district and recently have seen much more development proposals coming forward,” Carr said. “We have a lot of smaller businesses in the front [of the district] and heavier industrial operations in the back.”
While the Stone Arch Bridge TIF District has more of a defined timeline, Carr said the Downtown TIF District could stick around much longer as the goals of the district are broader.
The Downtown TIF has been created and maintained to develop and promote the downtown area. Past projects have included remediation efforts for the former Elite Laundry site, ongoing repairs and maintenance at Community Field, and lighting, sidewalks, benches and other improvements downtown.
The TIF district also gives $30,000 to support TEAM Jaffrey – a group devoted to enhancing, promoting, and revitalizing the town’s downtown by supporting new and existing businesses and promoting tourism – every year.
There is one bond being paid off in the district – which paid for the land purchase and demolition of a building on the Community Field site – that will be paid off in 2024.
Carr said that in this case, the TIF district could extend beyond that bond as there are a number of improvements that could be made after it is determined what will be done about the five-way intersection downtown.
“As long as we don’t have any bond, we can always shrink back and return more to the general fund,” Carr said. “We need to determine what further investments we want to make… once [the five-way intersection project] is done, it’s possible that major investments may be looked at.”
Carr said more lighting, benches, interconnected sidewalks, and bike racks may all be looked at, to create a more pedestrian-friendly downtown.
Should improvements be made to the five-way intersection, Carr said the Downtown TIF District would likely see an increase in the amount of captured taxes, as it would make downtown businesses more accessible.
Carr did say that it’s unlikely that construction of the new Park Theatre would increase the captured taxes, as the theatre is a nonprofit.
“The long term impact of traffic improvement would hope to raise the revenue as the purpose is an economic investment.”
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com.