Originally published in the Yellowstone County News print edition by Evelyn Pyburn.
LOCKWOOD — Boundaries for the proposed Targeted Economic Development District (TEDD) in Lockwood have been set and the process to create the special tax jurisdiction is nearing completion. The Comprehensive Development Plan for the TEDD will now go to the City/County Planning Board for review, which will forward it with their recommendation to the Yellowstone County Commissioners, for ultimate consideration in November.
About 30 people attended a public meeting last Monday evening in Lockwood to see the finished comprehensive plan that the engineering firm, Sanderson Stewart, was contracted to develop for Big Sky Economic Development Authority (EDA), the county agency that initiated the proposal.
Most of the questions posed to presenters by citizens at the meeting had to do with how the tax increment financing of the TEDD works. The financing is needed to help develop an industrial park near the Johnson Lane Interchange, which has been proposed by EDA to attract industry and manufacturing to the area.
Lauren Waterton of Sanderson Stewart explained that new tax revenues generated within the district because of new economic development are used to develop infrastructure in the district, which is necessary for businesses to locate there. With the creation of the TEDD, a base is set at the taxable value of property within it. That base generates tax revenues that flow to all regular taxing entities in the community, such as county government, schools, roads, EDA or MetraPark. Future tax revenue increases, which come from increased property values above that base, are retained by the district and applied to development within the district boundaries.
The theory is, explained Waterton, most businesses cannot afford to build the necessary infrastructure and will not locate in the area without water, sewer, and transportation systems in place. The TEDD helps to finance those systems to generate economic growth that might not occur if businesses had to pay for those improvements themselves.
The study area that was scrutinized during the process of developing the comprehensive plan involved 1,850 acres in the northwest quadrant of the intersection of Johnson Lane and Interstate 90. Of that area, 570 acres are included in the proposed TEDD. It is an area of primarily read more
