Informal City Council Meeting on Tuesday, September 5, 2023 Covers District Increment Financing
The districts involved include the Downtown Development District of 142.07 acres and the Mill Street Development district of 56.88 acres. The entire City of Gardner has 14,145 acres of land.
Listen to the meeting on any device. CLICK PLAY.
The financing method allows some or all of future property tax revenues from development to be dedicated to support infrastructure, projects, and programs related to economic development. Once DIF expires, all revenues go to general fund. In the proposed plan, the timeline of the DIF Management Plan would be 30 years with a DIF advisory committee made up of the Economic Development Coordinator, Director of Community Development and Planning, Gardner Assessor, a representative from DPW, and the Gardner treasurer or auditor. Important note: It is not a new tax, simply an allocation of existing property taxes. The packet included in the agenda for the meeting includes the DIF presentation and explanation. CLICK HERE.