Dec

15

Lee’s Summit stops a TIF monster

December 15, 2006 | Comments Off

Didn’t think it would turn out this way, but the Lee’s Summit City Council finally voted down the controversial CityWalk development proposal being pushed by Mike Smith, who also happens to chair the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority. What started out as an ambitious mixed-use project with housing, retail, offices, and a minor league baseball park dwindled into a standard big box strip mall before finally dying.

The developers really pushed the envelope of tax subsidy greed on this one. First they tried stretching the definition of MODESA, a subsidy meant for the redevelopment of Downtown or Main Street areas. Then they tried for Super TIF, which was developed after suburbs hijacked the regular TIF originally meant for blighted urban areas. The state rightly rejected both lame attempts. The city finally rejected local tax breaks.

Lee’s Summit is growing faster than almost any other suburb in either Missouri or Kansas. Demand for housing, retail, and office space is enormous. There is no need to subsidize strip malls there, the market is already taking care of it. Kudos to Lee’s Summit for standing up to greed and having confidence in their city.

Categories: Business, Real Estate, Suburbs


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