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| E-Mail
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| Paul VandenBosch | ||
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Department Information |
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| What is the BRA?
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| Act 381 of 1996 Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act
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| Frequently Asked Questions
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| BRA Development Plan(requires Adobe Acrobat)
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| BRA Projects
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| What is the LDFA?
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| Act 281 of 1986
Local Development Financing Act |
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| Frequently Asked Questions
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| LDFA Development Plan & Tax Increment Financing Plan (requires Adobe Acrobat)
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| LDFA District Map
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| Current Board of Directors
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Paul VandenBosch - (269) 637-0775
BRA & LDFA Project Manager
LDFA (Local Development Finance Authority) and the BRA (Brownfield Redevelopment Authority) are part of City of South Haven government and help encourage economic development.
Both are tax increment financing programs (TIF programs). TIF financing is authorized by state law, and is designed to encourage development.
TIF financing means that property taxes on new development are used to fund infrastructure and environmental cleanup for the development. These taxes are captured, they are not passed on to the jurisdiction that normally would get them, but go into a special fund earmarked for specific activities.
LDFA
The Local Development Finance Authority, or LDFA, is authorized to capture property taxes on industrial properties within an LDFA district. The captured taxes are used to build and maintain water, sewer, electric and roads, and to do economic development work in that district.
The justification for LDFA tax capture is that industrial activities bring dollars into the local economy by creating jobs, so using TIF funds to pay for industrial park infrastructure is a good investment that brings returns in other areas, such as retail, service industry and the housing market.
Examples of work that the South Haven LDFA has done: rebuilding Kalamazoo Street, Stieve Drive, Aylworth Avenue, and construction of the I-196 Industrial Park to the east of Wal-Mart. The LDFA also paid for a good part of the sewer in the St. Joseph Street project.
BRA
The Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, or BRA, is authorized to include environmentally contaminated parcels in the Brownfield Plan. The intent of the BRA is to level the playing field between the cost of developing on sites with environmental contamination versus developing in greenfields (agricultural land). This encourages redevelopment in cities rather than on agricultural land.
When a project area is included in a brownfield plan, taxes are captured to build up a fund to clean up the environmental problems.
Brownfield funds are used to pay environmental expenses only, they do not pay for parking lots, landscaping, demolition or any non-environmental costs. It will nor does not pay for environmental problems which were caused by the property owner.
In most cases, the BRA does not pay the developer until it has captured taxes from the development, and if the development does not go through, the developer does not get paid.
In order to get financial assistance, the developer has to prepare a brownfield plan. The brownfield plan is a financial plan which describes the cost of environmental work that the developer plans to do, the new value that the development will create, and how tax capture funds will be used to repay the environmental expenses.
For a listing of the City of South Haven Brownfield Projects
What des the BRA look for when a brownfield project is proposed?
Any brownfield project needs to be looked at as an investment.
You can look at the return on the investment in terms of tax revenue that a new development brings in, and you can also look at a broader return on the investment, such as jobs, new residents, blight elimination, spurring other development projects and impact on the local economy.
It is important to remember that taxing jurisdictions are losing out on revenue, however in many cases, the development would not have occurred if brownfield funding were not available.
Citizens from the community serve on one board which governs both authorities. The BRA and the LDFA meet the second Monday of the month at 4:00 PM at City Hall. The meetings are open to the public.