Columbia City Council members who support a Columbia Renaissance Redevelopment District financing plan are framing the debate as a challenge to North Columbia — a fight over whether the area deserves public money and can use it wisely.
 

Some City Council members want to create a special tax increment to spur development in North Columbia. Photo by Graeme Fouste

“We know people don’t think North Columbia can get these projects going,” said Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine at a Jan. 21 public meeting on the matter.

“Everybody in here knows what the battle is,” Councilman Sam Davis said. “This one is worth fighting.”

The proposal, one of two Tax Increment Financing districts currently on the table, is controversial for many reasons.

For one thing, a TIF is a major commitment. To fund development in a designated blighted area, local governments agree to cap existing property at currently assessed rates for the next 25 years. Then, they can issue bonds to borrow against future tax revenues on new development, in effect funding current development through a loan on future revenues.

There’s also the question of participation. The North Columbia TIF and its companion proposal, a TIF covering the University of South Carolina’s Innovista campus, were proposed as a partnership among the city, Richland County and Richland One school district. But for now, the TIFs will limp forward as city-only projects: The county and the school district both plan to formally decline participation in the two TIFs.

Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine says that doesn’t mean the school district and county are out for good — they can still decide to participate before the end of 2010 — but several county council and school board members have told Free Times this is the wrong time for the TIF. And that means much less money to fund projects — up to 70 percent less, if just the city participates. 

Another source of hesitation is that the Columbia Renaissance TIF is huge, covering 10.7 percent of the land in the city. It includes parts of downtown and the Bull Street campus, in addition to much of North Main, Farrow Road and Two Notch Road. Proponents say it has to be big in order to include enough future tax revenues to support the proposed projects.

Seven projects are included in the Columbia Renaissance Redevelopment District plan that would be funded by the TIF. Among them are a $4.5 million MainStay Suites hotel at 1301 Sunset Drive (using $2 million in public money), a $10 million wellness center on Two Notch Road (using $2 million in public money) and the massive $388 million Bull Street mixed use development (using $20 million in public money). One project is already underway: Senior Matters, an “open living community” on Farrow Road.

But Devine admitted that without the county and school district, they city will have to do fewer or smaller projects, even saying, “There’s no way the city alone could do Bull Street.”

North Columbia has been historically neglected for a variety of reasons. According to city documents, the area has an 89.6 percent minority population, compared with a thirty-nine percent minority population in the Columbia metro area. Over 50 percent of area residents make less than $20,000 a year, compared with 22 percent in the greater Columbia area. 39 percent of area residents have no vehicle, as opposed to 8 percent of residents in the city as a whole.

The projects proposed in the redevelopment plan are supposed to create an estimated 8,700 jobs, directly and indirectly, once all seven projects are up and running.

But some community members — even those who support the idea of a TIF to revitalize money to North Columbia — are critical of the plan.

Rhett Anders, a realtor and president of the Windemere Springs Neighborhood Association, is happy city officials are focusing on North Columbia.

“This area’s needed this for a long, long, long time,” he said at the Jan. 21 meeting.

But Anders is concerned that the plan doesn’t contain enough interesting or alluring projects — no art, for example, and no park improvements. He is also worried that Bull Street will suck up TIF dollars and potential North Main visitors.

“Bull Street is going to usurp any retail that would come out here for the next 20 years,” Anders said.

That concern is shared by Rev. Wiley Cooper.

“I’m very concerned that once again the rest of the community could be waiting and waiting and waiting” while Bull Street gets up and running, Cooper said.

Other neighborhood association representatives present at the meeting were pleased with the plan, praising Devine and Davis for their work.

The city held a second meeting Jan. 25 to discuss the TIFs. A third is scheduled for Feb. 2 at 6 p.m. at the Arsenal Hill Community Center at 1800 Lincoln Street. City Council will hold a public hearing and vote on the TIFs on Feb. 4.   


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