City Manager Don Magner gave a presentation at Monday’s City Council meeting regarding the DART-City Manager Economic Development Working Group (comprised of representatives from DART and six member cities including Richardson) and its plans to include DART in city-created Tax Increment Reinvestment Zones (TIRZ) through the use of interlocal agreements (ILAs). The ILA approach will allow DART to contribute future sales tax revenues to TIRZs for the first time in nearly the same manner as other taxing units, without legislative action needed, encouraging economic development, sales and property tax growth, and DART ridership growth.
Key features of the proposed TIRZ ILAs include:
- DART would automatically contribute a percentage of its sales tax revenue to a TIRZ and be the recipient of a percentage of combined sales tax and property tax revenue within the TIRZ for a designated term
- Cities must help establish a transit anchor within each TIRZ such as a DART station or enhanced bus shelter
- Cities must use DART sales tax funds for transit-related projects such as transit-oriented development, traffic signals and street maintenance within the TRZ
Next steps for the ILAs include DART Board consideration in May with City Council approvals by the end of the year.
Complete presentation: Click here
