PAXTON — The anticipated date of a public hearing for Paxton’s first tax increment financing (TIF) district has been pushed back 14 days to allow more time to file a required redevelopment plan.

The redevelopment plan was expected to be filed for public inspection last week, at the same time the city council was expected to schedule a public hearing for March 14.

However, the city’s TIF consultant, Springfield attorney Dan Schuering, did not have the document ready at that time. Consequently, the council pushed back the date of the public hearing to March 28, giving the city more time to file the redevelopment plan at City Hall.

The redevelopment plan must be available for public viewing for 45 days prior to the hearing being held, Schuering said. That means the city must publish the redevelopment plan no later than Feb. 12 for the hearing to be held March 28, he said.

Schuering said Tuesday he expects the redevelopment plan to be published next week. He said publishing the plan will not require city council approval, because Mayor Bill Ingold is authorized to do it.

Also next week, notices are expected to be sent to the taxing bodies affected by the TIF district. The taxing bodies will be invited to have representation on a “joint review board” that will be responsible for making an advisory recommendation to the council on whether to implement the TIF district. The joint review board’s first meeting must be held no later than 14 days after the redevelopment plan is published.

“We’re ready to start meeting as soon as possible,” Ingold said.

A final map of the TIF district’s redevelopment area also is expected to be completed soon, Schuering said.

Tentatively, city officials expect the TIF district to include the downtown, as well as an area around the Interstate 57 interchange, where Rantoul developer Joe Warner is planning a 250-home residential subdivision, a 100-home retirement community, an assisted-living center, and new stores and restaurants.  The TIF district would run along West Ottawa Road, from west of the city-owned airport to Market Street, before heading north into the downtown.

The TIF district would be used by the city to encourage development and improvements to properties within it, Schuering said. Basically, it would create a special “tax allocation fund” that would raise revenue for the city to help reimburse developers and property owners for improving their properties, Schuering said.

The tax allocation fund would generate revenue as property improvements are made and properties are reassessed. The fund would receive all of the property tax revenue collected on a property that is beyond the amount of taxes collected for the property when the TIF district was implemented, Schuering said.

The fund would be controlled by the city and could also be used by the city for its own eligible projects, he said. Agreements might also be worked out with other taxing bodies so that they, too, could tap into some of those funds.

Schuering said he and the mayor continue to negotiate one such agreement, with the Paxton-Buckley-Loda school district. School district officials have expressed concerns about being adequately compensated for the number of new students the district might see as a result of development. The district is expecting Warner’s residential development to bring 1.4 students per new household to PBL’s four schools, which have little room to expand to accommodate such growth. The district also may face more costs of hiring teachers, staff and purchasing supplies and materials as a result.

PBL Superintendent Cliff McClure stressed that the school district does not intend to profit from the TIF district. McClure said his district simply wants to be “made whole” to make up for the property taxes it would give up to the special tax allocation fund.

Schuering said negotiations with PBL officials are probably “going to take a while,” adding that “it’s something that both sides will have to give a lot of thought to.”

But he said he is optimistic an agreement will be reached.

“The attitude of the discussions is very good,” Schuering said. “The parties are sensitive to each other’s needs and each other’s problems, especially in this difficult economic environment.

“I think that we will be very concerned about ensuring that there are new tax funds to pay for the education of the students that are added to the schools because of the TIF district,” Schuering added.

The earliest date the city expects to adopt ordinances to implement the TIF district is April 9. The latest is June 23.

The publishing of the redevelopment plan is among the first steps. The document will outline some of the general goals for economic development within the area encompassing the TIF district during its 23-year life cycle. It also outlines an “implementation strategy” for redevelopment and discusses the existing “blighted” conditions in the area that make it eligible for a TIF district, Schuering said.