One of the tracts of land that is part of two proposed residential TIF districts is near Menards and Harrison Elementary. InkFreeNews photo by Dan Spalding.

WARSAW — The city is moving quickly to establish a new type of tax increment finance district to entice housing developers to construct more workforce housing.

Details, including maps, are still not available, but the concept was announced by Warsaw Plan Director Jeremy Skinner at a city Redevelopment Commission meeting Monday, Oct. 7.

Specifically, the city intends to create residential TIF districts around Harrison Elementary on the north side of Warsaw and Eisenhower Elementary on the city’s south side.

The city has used TIF districts extensively to spur economic development, especially industrial. But the need for housing in Warsaw has become a leading issue that the city is trying to address and officials think they can encourage more housing construction with this strategy.

TIF districts collect additional tax revenue from new development and then use that money for infrastructure that is intended to encourage more development.

The residential TIF district would use new revenues captured in the district to pay for infrastructure — roads and sewer — that developers usually pay for. 

Four public meetings — two for each school area — are planned in the next three weeks. Each meeting starts at 5:30 pm. The schedule is:

• Oct. 16 at Eisenhower
• Oct. 17 at Harrison
• Oct. 28 at Harrison
• Oct. 30 at Eisenhower

The residential TIF concept is new in Indiana and Warsaw would be one of a handful of cities to jump at the opportunity.

While demand for housing is high, the availability has been low until recently. Prior to the housing bust in 2008, the city was seeing roughly 60 or so new homes constructed per year. After that, the trend was cut in half, and only returned to normal in the past year or two, Skinner said.

Skinner said there is little downside to trying the strategy. “If we do nothing, there is zero impact. If we accomplish our goals … we will have created housing,” he said.

Skinner said the city wants to start the legal process of creating the district in November in hopes of finalizing the plans by the end of the year. 

The Indiana statute that oversees participation in the residential TIF program requires a certain ratio of existing houses versus new houses. Stats from the three previous years in Warsaw are more favorable. If they include 2019 figures, the city won’t be eligible, Skinner said.

The residential TIF plan also comes as the city of Warsaw and Kosciusko County Community Foundation are working on a housing study that will look at strategies to help boost new housing construction. That report is due to be completed within a few months, according to Mayor Joe Thallemer.

Thallemer said the TIF plan could dovetail with the recommendations in the report.

If established, the districts would have a 20-year-life span

No action on the matter was taken on Monday.