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irreparably harmed by the dollars lost to TIF subsidies to the developer.
"The Edwardsville School District doesn't even believe that this project qualifies for tax increment financing," said
Humes. "The property isn't that much different nor does it face any more challenges than other projects around there. We
also feel that this residential project is going to generate students to the Edwardsville School District and is being built
with the Edwardsville School District taxpayers' money, basically. So that's another reason that we're opposed to it."
At question is a 45-acre plot of land that the city purchased in recent years. The land was purchased to extend the
city's boundaries and to try to push development to build the city's tax base, according to Cathy Hamilton, president of
Hamilton Consulting and an advisor to the city of Wood River.
Once the property was acquired, however, it became clear to the city that there were a number of obstacles to its
development.
"You can't use all of the property there because of the way it's structured," said Fred Ufert, mayor of Wood River. "It
has streams running through it; there are some wetlands; numerous infrastructure improvements run through there like gas and
oil lines. It sits on an incline so there's a lot of infrastructure improvements that need to be done just to be able to use
about 70 percent of that property. Those things cost money. We had it out for bid. Four developers looked at the property
but three of them didn't want to fool with it because of the infrastructure problems. We had one developer that would if we
could help out with the infrastructure issue. One way to help out is with a TIF district," he added.
The proposed development is an 82-lot, single-family residential subdivision. Home prices would be in the $160,000 to
$200,000 range, according to Ufert. The developer is Quadrant Properties from St. Charles, Mo. While a formal redevelopment
agreement has not yet been signed with the developer, Hamilton says that the TIF money would be used to pay for
infrastructure costs like streets, sewers and water lines.
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Hamilton says that a consultant - Development Dynamics, also from St. Charles, Mo. - did the analysis regarding the
property's suitability for the creation of a TIF district. She said the consultant noted all of the problems with terrain,
easements and obsolete platting and came to the conclusion that without TIF subsidies, the property would not be developed.
According to Humes, however, part of the rationale for the TIF district was of the city's own making.
"Part of the criteria to look for blight is a decrease in property valuation," Humes said. "This property was
agricultural land and it was bought by a developer. The developer took the property out of production so then the assessment
went down, because agricultural land has a different tax basis than regular land. Then Wood River purchased the property and
the city claimed a tax exemption on it because the city is a municipality, so the city ended up showing that the assessed
value declined to zero."
In addition to challenging the TIF district, District 7 is also challenging the tax-exempt status that the city has
claimed, says Humes.
"Tax exempt status goes to use not ownership," he said. "So we've actually filed a document with the board of review to
have it look at that again and withdraw the city of Wood River's exempt status."
A joint review board made up of representatives from the school district, Ft. Russell Township, Lewis and Clark Community
College, the city and a private person appointed by the mayor was convened in accordance with the TIF statute. The joint
review board reviewed the TIF plan and blighting analysis and voted 3 to 2 against the proposed district. However, the JRB
is strictly an advisory body and has no veto power under the law. The school district, the township and the community
college all voted no.
Ufert said that he is negotiating with District 7 in an effort to get its support. But as of press time, he had not been
successful.
"Without the TIF, District 7 gets less money than if the TIF's in place," Ufert said. "Last year it received a total of
$2,500 from that property. We offered to pay them $570 per kid, then we offered another $1,000 on top of that. They can't
even come close to that number if there were no TIF in place and yet I still can't get an agreement. I understand there is
crowding in their schools and they want to pass a referendum and eliminate some of that. If that's an issue, then we've
asked them to de-annex the property because the Roxana School District would like to have them. But they've refused to do
that so far, too," Ufert added.
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