Marshall County Commissioners Discuss TIF Expansion in Culver

  
 

Phil Faccenda, Jr. of Barnes and Thornburg of South Bend and Kathy Clark, President of the Culver Redevelopment Commission requested the Marshall County Commissioners to approve a resolution to include more properties into the Culver TIF (Tax Increment Finance) District.

Faccenda explained that the Culver Redevelopment Commission is going through a process of expanding the Culver economic development area one.

“There are two economic development/TIF areas in Culver,” explained Faccenda. “The first one is being expanded to pursue primarily infrastructure improvements throughout the town consistent with comprehensive plan of the town.”

Three parcels are in the resolution that are not in the town of Culver, but are situated in the county and the Culver Redevelopment Commission wants to include them in their expansion. They are seeking 24.8 acres owned by Kevin Berger and an adjacent home on that property along State Road 17, plus a southern area of Culver on Tamarack and West Shore Drive.

Those properties may be annexed at some point, but not at this time.

The town would not benefit from the tax money but it could be used in the TIF District. It is the hope that the expansion could lead to more infrastructure development to attract business and industry to Culver.

As for economic impact to the county, Todd Samuelson from Umbaugh and Associates said there won’t be any.

“There really isn’t any just by this action,” said Samuelson. “The ability to capture future improvements of real property would exist. My understanding is those are going to be enhanced by the infrastructure that the TIF is going to be investing in. It’s kind of a reason why TIF exists is to capture increases in real property that can be utilized to invest in the infrastructure and have other investment occur in areas that perhaps otherwise wouldn’t.”

The commissioners unanimously approved the resolution to allow Culver to expand the TIF District.