A plan to jump-start the most ambitious retail and commercial project in Bluffdale history received the go-ahead this week and is expected to bolster the city's puny tax base.
"This becomes maybe $20 million (in tax revenue) over 12 years," Bluffdale Mayor Noell Nelson said Tuesday.Breaking commercial tax revenue barriers will be an easy feat for this rural city of nearly 4,300 people, where a gas-and-go convenience store is not only the center of retail life -- it is the only retail life in Bluffdale other than home-operated businesses.
Traditionally reluctant to endorse growth, Bluffdale's City Council nevertheless approved a 12-year property tax freeze for an estimated 100 acres of land, a move aimed at spurring commercial and high-density residential growth near the area southeast of the intersection of Bangerter Highway and Redwood Road.
"It gets us in the starting gates," Nelson said. "We're in a position where we can implement some of the projects."
Using a complex "tax increment" system, the frozen taxes will enable Bluffdale to leverage revenue bonds to pay for improvements such as roads, sewers and water lines along the affected site, upgrades considered essential for enticing developers. A paralyzed tax base also means more tax rebates for prospective developers, Nelson said, money he hopes will be reinvested in the building projects.
Nelson conceded that "a lot" of his constituents "could care less" about building a commercial or center in their city.
He said those who opposed the plan "just felt like it's going to get developed anyway . . . why should we further the progress?"
Perhaps most ironic about Bluffdale's so-called "Gateway Redevelopment" plan was that, at least for the moment, the city is teamed up with Anderson Development Co., which has filed three lawsuits against the city over other land-related issues.
Nelson had said previously that if Tuesday's initiative didn't pass, "we might have more lawsuits, who knows."
Bluffdale must still decide whether to pursue commercial and retail redevelopment for about 200 other acres of land, Nelson said.
You can reach Frank Curreri by e-mail at fcurreri@desnews.com