The pros and cons of TIRZs were discussed in an earlier blog post: TIRZ
It turns out that Georgetown has at least four TIRZs; Downtown, Williams Drive, Rivery, and South Georgetown. The South Georgetown TIRZ will be reviewed at the City Council Workshop at 3pm on Tuesday, May 9, 2017. The South Georgetown TIRZ encompasses 594 acres on both sides of Westinghouse Road.
The fundamental assumption behind a TIRZ is that development of property will be accelerated if the City installs roads and utilities up-front and the costs will be paid back to the City through increased property taxes due to the development.
From the information to be discussed on Tuesday, several items are apparent.
1. The financial projections from three years ago are substantially in error.
2. Improvements in roads, sewers, water and electricity access costing $35M were approved with the up-front costs funded by Georgetown Utility System (GUS) and the Georgetown Transportation Enhancement Corporation (GTEC) with payback as development occurred.
3. Tax revenues for this TIRZ were projected to be $1,671,858 in 2017. Actual revenues will come in at less than $100,000 for 2017. Mean while the expenditures of $35M are on track!
4. Staff is now requesting $25K for a market analysis to determine the current build out time frame and update the financial payback analysis.
Bottom line; The infrastructure is being built, but, the development is way behind schedule, even though Georgetown has been growing at a fast clip over the last several years. Evidently zoning requests are being considered for the TIRZ without an understanding of the impact on the financing. The payback of funds to GUS and GTEC will take substantially longer than originally estimated.
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