Explanation
BACKGROUND: This Council passed Ordinance 3064-99 on December 13, 1999 (the TIF Ordinance) declaring as a public purpose increases in assessed value of parcels of certain real property located within the City’s Gateway Area (the TIF Area, as described and depicted in the TIF Ordinance), which has been redeveloped by Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment (Campus Partners). The TIF Ordinance provides for a 100% exemption on all increases in assessed value within the TIF Area for a period of not more than 30 years. The TIF Ordinance also specifies that the annual service payments in lieu of taxes paid in respect of the TIF Area are first used to make payments to the Columbus City School District in the amount of real property taxes that the School District would have received without that exemption. Pursuant to a TIF Agreement by and between the City and Campus Partners, approved pursuant to Ordinance 1367-2005, passed on September 28, 2005, the remaining annual service payments in lieu of taxes received in respect of the TIF Area are used to reimburse Campus Partners for costs of public improvements constructed in the Gateway Area. The City is not obligated to reimburse Campus Partners from any other funds for costs of the public improvements constructed in the Gateway Area.
The Ohio State University (OSU) plans to move the OSU Technology Commercialization and Knowledge Transfer office to approximately 14,288 square feet (the Subject Property) of rentable space in the South Campus Gateway development, which is within the TIF Area. The Subject Property would normally qualify for an exemption from real property taxation because of its use in support of OSU, but the TIF exemption provided by the TIF Ordinance currently takes priority over all other property tax exemptions. By statute, in order for a use-based property tax exemption, such as the one for the Subject Property, to take priority over a TIF exemption that has been established as...
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