The Las Cruces City Council voted 6-0 Monday, June 15 to table consideration of adoption of a resolution declaring the City’s intent to consider the formation of a Tax Increment Development District (TIDD) for the property at 2700 N. Main St. where the former Las Cruces Country Club was located. Instead, the council will conduct a June 29, 2020, special work session so it can obtain more information and enable further public input.
“I need to see what it all entails,” said Mayor Ken Miyagishima, of a request by LC Nova, LLC, property developers, to create a TIDD to promote the development of the property. This area was covered as part of the Apodaca Blueprint, which was completed by the City’s Community Development Department and adopted by City Council in July 2018 through Resolution No. 18-035.
In December, City Council passed Resolution No. 20-069 to establish guidelines for the use of TIDDs for financing the economic development of underutilized areas of the City. These TIDD guidelines and procedures allow for transparency of TIDDs as an economic incentive and will ensure that TIDDs are to benefit the public good.
However, public concerns raised in several emails sent to council members and having a more thorough understanding of the developer’s request led to Monday’s council decision.
“There’s a lot of things that need to be taken into consideration,” said Mayor Pro Tem Kasandra Gandara, who represents City Council District 1.”
The area is also in a federally designated Opportunity Zone, which means the Governor designated it as an area in need of development. TIDDs can be used to construct, operate, and maintain public infrastructure in support of development. TIDDs establish a baseline property and gross receipts tax (GRT) base, and as development occurs increasing the property and GRT amounts in the district, a portion of the increment is reinvested into the district to continue and support development.
The proposed resolution can be found at this link.
City Council asks residents who may have comments, concerns, or questions to please e-mail their City Councilor as follows:
District 1 – Councilor Kasandra A. Gandara at: kgandara@las-cruces.org
District 2 – Councilor Tessa Abeyta-Stuve at: tstuve@las-cruces.org
District 3 – Councilor Gabriel Vasquez at: gvasquez@las-cruces.org
District 4 – Councilor Johana Bencomo at: jbencomo@las-cruces.org
District 5 – Councilor Gill M. Sorg at: gsorg@las-cruces.org
District 6 – Councilor Yvonne M. Flores at: yflores@las-cruces.org
Mayor Ken Miyagishima at: mayor@las-cruces.org
City of Las Cruces news releases are available on the home page of the City website at las-cruces.org under News & Announcements and can be translated into Spanish and multiple other languages using the Select Language feature on the lower right side of the page.