09-10-18 Community Investment - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Councilmember Jo M. Broden stated, The overview is appreciated. The Auditor has a key role to play in this as well, because they are tracking the abatement schedule and the payments, correct? After our meeting, that was my thought. What has been done to connect all of the parts in a timely manner? Between Council's approval and the time that the building permits are pulled, that will flag everybody down the chain. And it may not be full, because it might only be year one (1) or two (2) of the project. My overview of the meeting was that there were a lot of right hands not knowing what the left hands were doing between City offices and what the developer was doing. I would rather look at expanding the designation period because it looks like we've missed, at least in the 2015 period which predated you. It seems to me that there needs to be an adjustment on that. I'd like to know a little bit more. This is important not only for large scale developers, but also residential properties. What does the cleanup on this process look like? Committee Chair Ferlic asked, Would it be best to have a standard, much longer period for everyone, or is there something for those smaller developments that you want to incentivize quicker completion? We could just say it is four(4) years for everyone. Councilmember Broden stated, And timeliness is important when someone comes to us with a project. Timeliness matters in getting these off the ground. I get delays, but hearing these all en masse today, we are not getting the opportunity as a Council or as the public to understand. It could be instructive if we had a sense of each one (1) of these. Mr. Mueller interjected, We have representatives from each of these projects. Councilmember Broden stated, And that would be helpful, the designation periods, the communications and the timing between all of the parties. I have at least one (1) vote that I regret on this Council, and it was from an earlier petitioner who said they didn't get a Form 11. Everybody gets Form 11 s one (1)way or another, and if you don't get them and you're living in the City and you have a residence, then you're getting those at the same time. It should be coming to your commercial address, or there is.a communication error with the Auditor on the property information. All of the other information about taxing periods and if you want to appeal that, to me, that is a huge communication thing that we all go through as a community. We need to get to the bottom of that, where the Form 11 s weren't sent. To me, there's a general awareness that we all have as tax payers in this community, and of course that then triggers all of these different steps. I just want to make sure the communication level is increased. There is a certain level of hand holding that goes into these, but at some point, your investment is your investment. After getting these abatements, I don't know why the subsequent paperwork isn't being filed. Mr. Mueller stated, You can receive a Form 11, but if it doesn't have the updated full new assessed value, it doesn't do you any good if that value comes in the next.year. We know from our other conversation with the Assessor's Office,they don't assess every property every year. You'd like to do every property so you don't have big jumps, you'd also probably have fewer appeals, but that's one (1) issue. From our perspective, we can proactively tell the Assessor's Office, "here are the properties with tax abatements,please look at these". As we discussed in the meeting, we can give them an architectural drawing and the design costs if that helps them start, but they have their own process that they're going to follow. EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 T 0574.235.5567 I www.southbendin.gov 6