The Portage Redevelopment Commission plans to discuss in detail plans for its first residential tax increment financing district later this month.

Redevelopment Director Dan Botich and others have been hammering out a plan with developers of six different subdivisions, Botich told the commission during a meeting June 26.

A public hearing on the plan will be scheduled for Aug. 28, following approval of a schedule at the RDC’s July 24 meeting.

The Portage Township assessor, Portage Township Schools Superintendent Amanda Alaniz, School Board President Andy Maletta, neighborhood associations and impacted property owners will all be briefed on the plan, Botich said.

The process of establishing a new TIF district involves approval by the RDC, then the City Council, then the RDC again. Once the council makes a decision, the RDC will schedule another public hearing to confirm it.

That should get money rolling into the city’s coffers as soon as November, Botich said.

That revenue is important as a means to pay for the police raises approved by the council last month. Without that money, the city wouldn’t be able to afford the raises.

It’s a complicated financing structure, but essentially, developers would pay 25% of the fee up front to the city to cover public safety and other needs. The remaining 75% of the money would be used to cover bonds issued to pay for infrastructure improvements.

That 25% fee would disappear when a subdivision is 80% completed, providing an incentive for developers to move quickly to sell the lots.

“It’s a very creative financial method in order to have dollars come back to the Redevelopment Commission,” Botich said.

“It’s a lot to take in right now,” he said, but he plans to present everything at the July 24 meeting.

“We’ve been working on this for a while, and it’s been very complicated and very complex,” he said.

Mayor Austin Bonta said affected local taxing districts are being notified already to make sure they’re aware of how this works.

Botich said an economic development analysis has already been run for two of the subdivisions and will be used on the others. “We have made great strides moving forward. We want to make sure this is done correctly,” he said. “We have all our ducks in a line, and we’re getting everything ready.”

Because a TIF captures money that would otherwise go to schools, the RDC has a grant program to ease the pain for schools. At last month’s meeting, the RDC granted $250,000 to Portage Township Schools to help pay the cost of iPads for students in grades 2 and 8. With a total of about 1,000 students, at $400 apiece, that leaves the RDC paying about two-thirds of the cost, Botich said.

Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.