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 Post subject: Hobart brings back abatement program
PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 7:47 pm 
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Hobart brings back abatement program

HOBART: Officials: Changes are designed to improve quality of homes

HOBART | The City Council rescinded its moratorium on residential tax abatement Wednesday night and reinstituted an amended version of the controversial program.

Councilmen said modifications to the program would make it a more stringent process designed to improve the quality of housing in the city. The program, which was implemented in the 1990s as a way to offset the city's higher tax rate, was suspended in the fall of 2005. Since that time, residential growth in the city has slowed.

The council voted 5-1 in favor of restarting the program. Councilman Brian Rosenbaum, D-3rd, opposed the idea and Councilman Tom Ehrhardt, R-1st, was absent.
"I feel comfortable with what's been done," said Councilwoman Becky Juzwicki, D-4th. "We're more on the same page than we ever have been before."

Rosenbaum said he wanted to make sure people who benefited from tax abatement paid their "fair share" of taxes in the first year and also wanted the city to have better guidelines to control the housing being proposed.

"I don't think much has changed (in the policy)," Rosenbaum said. "We're not setting any standards."

But other councilmen argued the modifications would allow the control Rosenbaum desired. John Brezik, D-5th, is chairman of the city's subcommittee on residential tax abatement. He proposed converting the $1,000 fee to the park department previously used into a $600 fee to the park department and a $650 fee to a city improvement fund.

The fees would be paid at the time of the building permit, and bring the taxpayer closer to the average tax bill the first year while still giving an incentive to build, he said.

"That (fund) allows us to get revitalization in needed areas," Brezik said. "It's a little more fair (for existing homeowners) while still maintaining an incentive to build."

He also proposed a set of guidelines the developers had to meet, including describing how they would vary house styles and what kind of environmental standards it would set. Developers also would be required to work more closely with the city staff and the abatement subcommittee if they wanted to qualify for abatement. City staff also would be responsible for checking whether a house met the requirements of the subdivision's covenants before a building permit would be issued. Abatement could be revoked from developers who did not stick to the approved plan.

"There will be give and take before it comes to the council for a vote on tax abatement," Brezik said. "The onus is on developers to create better projects."

Brezik also suggested an abatement program for existing homeowners who wanted to make improvements on their homes, and he wants to work to come up with other economic development plans that would eventually phase out the residential tax abatement program.

Carl Lindsey, R-2nd, said he was pleased with the changes that were agreed on.

"We are not going to allow ourselves to go back and rubber-stamp every project," Lindsey said. "We have become better educated, smarter and are going to require more of developers who want abatement."

Date posted online: Thursday, February 22, 2007
BY CARRIE RODOVICH
crodovich@nwitimes.com
219.762.1397, ext. 2226


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