TIF Districts
The Columbus Redevelopment Commission determines if an area of the city is in need of redevelopment, economic development, urban renewal or remediation. Projects are also defined as those that will benefit the public good, employment, housing and local economics.
The City of Columbus has created six (6) Redevelopment Districts:
- 2nd and Lafayette Allocation Area (2nd and Lafayette)
- Airport Allocation Area (Airport)
- Central Allocation Area (Central)
- Cummins Allocation Area (Cummins)
- Midtown Allocation Area (Midtown)
- South Commons Residential Block Allocation Area (The Cole).
Click here to read more about Tax Increment Financing.
(Note, the term “Allocation Area” refers to the mechanism that generates revenue for that district.)
Funding for Projects
In order to have sufficient funding to support Redevelopment projects, the State legislature created a funding mechanism. This mechanism diverts property taxes that are generated on incremental assessed valuations on all commercial and industrial properties within a geographical area. This is referred to as “Tax Increment Financing” (TIF). To further understand the process, read below:
When an “Allocation Area” is established all the commercial and industrial property in the area will be assigned an assessed value as of January 1st of the year the allocation area in created. In the following calendar year there will be a new assessed value. Property taxes will be computed on the new assessed valuation.
In the second year, the County auditor will make a mathematical computation such that all property tax generated on the initial assessed value for year 1 will be paid over to the respective taxing districts and all the property tax generated on the increased assessed value will be paid over to the TIF District.
Under this program every successive year should bring an increase in the amount of funds paid over to the Redevelopment Commission. Thus, the Redevelopment Commission should have an ongoing source of revenue for future projects.
