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II. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROJECT DISTRICT STATUTORY <br />OVERVIEW <br />A. Introduction <br />To facilitate economic development and redevelopment activities within <br />the State of Indiana, the General Assembly has adopted and created a <br />variety of "tools" that development agencies can use to stimulate <br />economic forces within a community. One of those tools, granted to only <br />four (4) municipalities within the State, is the Economic Development <br />Project District (EDPD) designation. The project district statute located in <br />Section 36 -7 -26 of the Indiana Code allows municipalities to designate a <br />project district boundary and within the designated boundary, create a <br />Sales Tax Increment Finance (STIF) Allocation Area. The STIF area <br />allows for sales tax revenues, generated above a base assessment, to be <br />used to facilitate certain redevelopment activities. Each of the four <br />described municipalities have only certain redevelopment activities for <br />which the funds can be applied. <br />The financial mechanism language within a project district differs from a <br />redevelopment area in that the Sales Tax Increment Finance (STIF) funds <br />are generated from sales tax revenues as compared to the Tax Increment <br />Finance (TIF) funds which are generated from property tax revenues. In <br />the case of TIF where the bond level is set by the amount of revenue that <br />can be generated within an area, the STIF legislation is capped at one <br />million dollars per year for a twenty year time period thus allowing a <br />maximum generation potential of twenty million dollars. <br />The next several sub - sections will detail the principles for the designation <br />of a project district, the process for designation of a project district and the <br />permitted use of funds within a project district in South Bend. <br />B. Principles of an Economic Development Project District <br />The intent of the Economic Development Project District section within the <br />Indiana Code is to give certain municipalities within the State of Indiana <br />an additional redevelopment "tool" that can supplement the normal <br />redevelopment "tool box" to aid in the revitalization of "greyfield" project <br />sites. A general definition of a greyfield site is that it is an abandoned, <br />obsolete or underutilized property such as a regional shopping mall or <br />strip retail development. The color "grey" was given to this planning <br />classification because of the amount of vacant paved parking surfaces <br />c, 8 <br />