Special Atlantic City Council Meeting Held To Discuss TIF Variance Letter and Alleged Communication Issues

(Atlantic) A Special Atlantic City Council Meeting was held this morning to discuss a TIF Variance letter the City received from IEDA regarding the Vision Atlantic Housing Development project.

Atlantic Mayor Grace Garrett said on Friday she received a letter from the state regarding the application that was completed for the TIF agreement. On June 5th, the City Council voted to move forward with the waiver. Garrett said all she wanted to confirm today was that what was in the letter was what the Council agreed to.

Garrett said she did not see the application before it was sent in and she questioned whether the Council members had seen it.

Garrett expressed concerns with the wording in the letter that says the “City” will meet the requirements.

City Engineer Dave Sturm explained that this is a residential TIF with an LMI component and all this does is reduce the liability down to 30-percent, which he said is a good thing.

Garrett stated that all requests or updates to Vision Atlantic from the City from now on is to be in email form, saying there have been things that have been discussed that she was not made aware of.

Dan Haynes, Executive Director of the Nishna Valley Family YMCA , said everyone has been invited to the meetings they’ve had and they have communicated as much as they can.

Haynes gave kudos to Christina Bateman who spends 60 to 70 hours a week, not getting paid, moving the project along.

Grace Garrett expressed concern that only one individual (City Administrator John Lund) has been involved, with no communication to the City Council or Mayor. Lund posed this question to Christina Bateman…

In the end, City Councilman Gerald Brink asked if they can just agree that they are going to move ahead with the project.

During the May 15 City Council meeting, the council adopted an ordinance allowing the sale of 49 acres of City-owned property to Vision Atlantic for $1.00. In return, Vision Atlantic is investing $4.1 million in infrastructure, $48.8 million in housing, and $10.7 million in a 300-capacity childhood development center.