South Bend is looking to capitalize on redevelopment efforts in the Lincoln and Kennedy Park area. About half of the lots in the neighborhood are vacant, but that could soon change. Nonprofit housing developer Intend Indiana plans to build 92 new homes over the next five years. The city also has a partnership with South Bend Mutual Housing.
Those new homes will bring new property tax revenue. On Thursday, the redevelopment commission voted to set aside that future money by finalizing a residential TIF district.
Joseph Molnar, the city's assistant director of growth and opportunity, says the money can be used for things like roads, sidewalks, public buildings and development projects. “RDC must approve all the expenditure of the TIF, so if the commission came with a desire to spend money on Kennedy Park using this residential TIF, I think Kennedy Park is a clear example of one that would serve the TIF,” Molnar explained.
Some local property owners said they’d like to be able to use some of the money to upgrade existing homes. Executive director of community investment Caleb Bauer said the redevelopment commission could offer that, but there isn’t a program planned yet.
“I do think those are administratively difficult to run, those programs," Bauer said. "We do run the citywide home repair program, and so we would like to direct people first to that program before creating a new smaller-geography program.”
Redevelopment officials stressed that the city isn’t looking to buy up existing homes, and that the new TIF wouldn’t raise taxes directly. But some residents worried that future improvements would raise property values and price them out.
Still, redevelopment commission member Eli Wax said the TIF will provide dedicated funding for improvements, without having to raise taxes. “This is a neighborhood that, like many of the core neighborhoods in the interior of South Bend, while having a heyday many decades ago, has spent decades deteriorating in many ways,” Wax said.
He said it’s too early to discuss specific projects, since the TIF will take a few years to start generating revenue, but he’d like to see opportunities to help individual homeowners directly.
