07-11-1988 - Agenda Packet City Council - regular meeting

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a.) %ctivities the City should undertake b.) The type of redevelopment the City desires in the selected areas(both commercial and or residential) c.) The level of City involvement (A comprehensive approach that might have the kind of spill over benefits that the staff is reviewing is the Star City Program. ro This progran has been developed by the State to pvinide techcal assistance to qualifying communities, principally for economic •development. Since however redevelopment and economic development, utilize similar tools, qualifying for the program may provide some benefit in the area of needed technical assistance.) At present, it is questionable if the primary funding tools including tax increment bonding, industrial revenue bonds and municipal tax exempt bond issues generally will be available upon passage of the tax reform on the Federal level. over the next few months this may have a decided impact on the redevelopment Orono is able to engage in. It should be noted however, that this may not be as serious an impediment as it once was considered. There have been some taxable issues that have been recently placed by public agencies that have resulted in interest rates not dissimilar and in some cases lower (because of the methods used) than a traditional tax exempt bond. (This is due in part to arbitrage rules not being applicable to taxable bond issues of public agencies.) Community Development and Redevelopment Strategy - As mentioned it is appropriate at this time to undertake a review of the direction the City wants to undertake regarding its community development together with any redevelopment that it desires to take. Once Council has discussed and decided the direction that they want to go, staff will then be able to more definitely explore the work in each of the target areas selected to determine what is appropriate. Attached you will find an example of some preliminary directions for the Navarre area. RECOMMENDATION - It is recommended that at the Counci l's January 27, 1986, meeting that the Council generally discus the area and give staff an indication preliminarly oL what things they feel are appropriate to be undertaken. Based on that, itaff will do the following (included are staff's recommenc'ations for directions). a) Development of Ge_neral_Stratecly - It if, suggested that in eac— oT "Ege major areas below the following levels of activity be engaged in - Commercial Areas - The City engage in redevelcpment, acting as a catalyst to promote private efforts together with working on a master plan to dovetail with County 15 improvements.