Shannon Sweeny, a finance expert with David Drown Associates, spoke to councilmembers before they made the motion to approve the TIF offer.
"It is your decision as to subsidizing this business," he said.  "We recommend $94,000 in building improvements exclu-sively to this tenant, over five years.  The tenant has to be on premise and operating for the entire term."
"We assure you that we can put agreements in place to ensure the subsidy goes to the tenant.  We are not recom-mending final approval of terms tonight."
Matt Crowe informed councilmem-bers, "It will be a completely different store than at St. Boni.  This one will be more upscale, more European."
Stated Councilmember Terry Bishop, "We're lucky that Matt Crowe has been aggressive and energetic to get this done."
"Thank you, Matt, for your interest in our community," said Mayor Jerry Bohn.
It is expected that once Mackenthun's arrives in Victoria and turns an empty space at the Notermann Building into a business space, property taxes on that building will increase.  The amount that taxes increase because of the increase in valuation due to renovation and improve-ment is called the "increment."  That increment, or "new" tax, can be reim-bursed back to the developer who can buy down a tenant's [Mackenthun's] lease. 
According to City Finance Director Jylan Johnson, the City of Victoria will not start paying the subsidy until 2008, which is the first year that the city realizes the increase in property tax from this specific property.


MORE WORK FOR TKDA IN VICTORIA
ON THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR 2030

Council voted 5-0 on October 26th to hire TKDA, the city's engineering firm, to also be the consultant firm to update the city's Comprehensive Plan to the year 2030.  The motion did not include the naming of a specific consultant with TKDA, but discussion pointed to Dick Thompson. 
"I do expect to see Dick Thompson," said Councilmember Mary Thun.  "I want to make sure we get new ideas from TKDA and lots of public input."
The goal is to provide a vision of the community and not just meet require-ments of the Metropolitan Council.  It's the Met Council who requires Comp Plans from cities.
City Administrator Dave Urbia said that 30 different firms received Victoria's Request for Proposals, that six of them showed up at an informational meeting, and four of them submitted proposals and were interviewed by the city.
Staff recommended the hiring of TKDA at a contract cost of $34,000 plus $400 to $750 for Task Force meetings.  Other bids were $44,568; $51,000; $48,500 with or without various add-ons.
Jim Paulsen, candidate for Victoria city council, said there were 187 govern-ment entities seeking to do Comp Plans at this time.  "I don't know if the Met Council can read all 187 plans.  I suggest we don't rush into this process."
Replied Councilmember Kim Roden, however, about the Met Council and Comp Plan, "We have the potential to work well together to move forward.  There's an old Chinese proverb that says the nail that sticks out gets hit in the head."


DISTRICT 112 FINANCE OFFICER
VISITS VICTORIA CITY COUNCILMEMBERS

Steve Pumper, Director of Finance and Opera-tions for School District 112, was part of the Visitor's Presentation at the October 12th city council meeting.
He said the second high school would be built at the intersection of Audubon Road and Lyman Boule-vard in Chanhassen and open in 2009.  Total cost to build and equip the school is $92.91 million.  Con-struction costs are $185 per square foot.  The second referendum question asks for an additional $3 million for operating costs.
In responding to questions from Victoria city councilmembers, Mr. Pumper said that school build-ings are investments for the district and are built with some flexibility in mind. 
Projections show that the peak number of stu-dents in this area will not be reached in 2020, and a third high school will likely be needed at that time.
On October 26th, Victoria councilmembers ap-proved a resolution in support of the District 112 referendum questions.  However, that vote was not unanimous.   
Said Councilmember Terry Bishop,  "I'm not saying I'm for or against the referendum.  I'm saying it is not my role to urge how citizens should vote on this issue, so I'll abstain."  Councilmember Richard Tieden said, "I concur with Terry."  Said Mayor Jerry Bohn, "We're not telling people how to vote.  We're just saying we support this referendum and it'll be good for our community."



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