DOOR COUNTY (NBC 26) — Christie Weber and Kelly Avenson were two of many neighbors at Sturgeon Bay City Hall Tuesday night, voicing their opinions as the Common Council approved plans involving four of the city's 12 Tax Increment Financing Districts (TIDs).
These include:
- TID #7 Expansion: Adding seven parcels east of Target totaling 30.39 acres along Green Bay Road, South Duluth Avenue and Sawyer Drive, bringing the mixed-use district to 43 acres.
- TID #9 Expansion: Adding a 2.95-acre parcel so that the entire Therma-Tron-X building falls within the district.
- TID #10 Expansion: Adding 11 parcels totaling about 59 acres. This would support a proposed 60-unit affordable housing development by Gorman & Company along with an ALDI.
- TID #12 Creation: Placing 77 acres along Division Road, which would include 44 single-family residential lots, 11 duplex lots, and 34 storage units. 30 of the single-family lots will be designed as workforce housing.
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While TIDs fund public improvements and spark economic development, schools in the area will only receive a base value of taxes for the next 20 years. In Sturgeon Bay, that will affect the Southern Door County School District and the Sturgeon Bay School District.
"When you withhold that money, that has compounding effects on a school district," Avenson said.
"If we don't have a number one school emphasis, we are missing our greatest economic developer," Weber added.
For Avenson, it affects her eight-year-old son's resources, as he goes through the Sturgeon Bay School District.
"It means that the books don't get updated; it means that the curriculum doesn't get updated," Avenson said when asked what the TIDs mean to her son's education. "I actually know that our curriculum is outdated."
While Weber and Avenson want a moratorium on TIDs, Sturgeon Bay mayor David Ward disagrees.
"I would argue that TIDs have been very good for Sturgeon Bay," he said.
But he understands what schools are facing right now.
"It's going to be a struggle unless we fix the school aid formula and we grow the tax base," Ward said. "That's been my message. My message is in order to support this, you're going to have to grow the tax base."
A joint review board will be held on August 13 between the city, Southern Door County, and the Sturgeon Bay School Districts to further discuss the TIDs.
