A majority of the City’s Economic Development Strategy Task Force recommended on December 13 to the City Council draft language and concepts for a proposed advisory vote on a ballot measure. The proposed ballot seeks voter input on the creation of a Tax Increment Financing Zone (Zone) program that would establish one or more single-property urban renewal districts.
[Note: the City Council acted on December 17 to place the proposed ballot measure before the voters; view news article.
The intent of this Zone program is to incentivize the private-sector to convert lower-value, vacant or underutilized industrial buildings into higher-value manufacturing facilities with a larger employment base at a higher wage level.
Chaired by Councilor Scott Starr, the task force has been working since November on phase two of the Economic Development Strategy. This part of the process focuses on identifying key attributes of businesses that the City may wish to recruit or retain and what kinds of incentives, if any, might be appropriate to encourage business investment and job creation.
More information on the City’s economic development strategy effort and upcoming meetings in January are available online at: www.ci.wilsonville.or.us/EconomicDevelopmentStrategy.