Urbana currently has two Tax Increment Finance (TIF) districts, and each has its own plan for its redevelopment area. The City offers three incentive programs through the TIF Districts:
Urbana has two TIF Districts. The Central TIF includes downtown Urbana and TIF 4 covers the Cunningham Avenue Corridor. Please view Supporting Documents below.
Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) helps local governments attract private development and new businesses. New businesses mean more jobs, more customers, and, in turn, more private investment. TIF designations also help retain existing businesses that might otherwise find more attractive options elsewhere. The jobs and additional investment - private and public - mean more money for the community. TIF funding helps to overcome the extraordinary costs that often prevent development and private investment on environmentally contaminated and other properties. It is also used where infrastructure is inadequate or there is obsolete development. As a result, the TIF area itself improves, and property values go up. State Laws governing TIF are The Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act (65 ILCS 5/11-74.4.1 etc.) and The Industrial Jobs Recovery Law (65 ILCS 5/11-74.6-5 etc.)
Additional Information about TIF’s is available from the Illinois Tax Increment Association
Only certain types of project costs are eligible for TIF incentives. These include:
- Planning, architectural, engineering, legal, and other services to cover costs of studies, surveys, development of plans and specifications, and implementation and administration of this redevelopment plan.
- Staff costs to implement and administer this redevelopment plan, including costs to create the Redevelopment Project Area. Annual administrative costs shall not include general overhead or administrative costs of the City that would have been incurred by the City if the Redevelopment Project Area had not been adopted.
- The cost of marketing sites within the Redevelopment Project Area to prospective businesses, developers, and investors.
- Property assembly, demolition, and site preparation costs, including but not limited to acquisition of land and other property, real or personal, demolition of buildings, and site preparation activities, including certain site improvements.
- Private and public building rehabilitation and public building replacement costs, including costs of rehabilitation, reconstruction or repair or remodeling of existing public or private buildings, fixtures, and leasehold improvements, and the cost of replacing an existing public building if the site is to be used for private investment.
- Public works construction and improvement costs, excluding the cost of constructing a new municipal public building that is not intended to replace an existing public building.
- Costs of job training and retraining projects, including the cost of “welfare-to-work” programs implemented by businesses located within the Redevelopment Project Area.
- Financing costs, including but not limited to all necessary and incidental expenses related to the issuance of obligations and which may include payment of interest on any obligations issued hereunder, including interest accruing during the estimated period of construction of any redevelopment project for a period not to exceed 36 months.
- Other taxing districts’ capital costs for a redevelopment project, to the extent accepted and approved by the municipality by written agreement in furtherance of the objectives of the redevelopment plan and project.
- Relocation costs, to the extent the municipality determines that relocation costs shall be paid or are required to be paid by federal or state law.
- Payments in lieu of taxes.
- Costs of job training, retraining, advanced vocational education, or career education, including but not limited to courses in occupational, semi-technical, or technical fields leading directly to employment and subject to additional restrictions, as well as interest cost reimbursement for up to 30 percent of annual interest paid on private financing of qualified redevelopment projects, subject to specific restrictions as provided in the act.
TIF Reports are filed with the Illinois State Comptroller's Office for each past fiscal year. Reports may be found both on the Comptroller's public documents website.