The Caledonia Village Board unanimously approved a plan at its meeting Monday to extend a road reconstruction project just north of the one currently being done on Nicholson Road at Dunkelow Road.
The project, which will impact about 10 parcels totaling about .225 acres to the north, is being extended in anticipation of future development and because the crews are already working there now, said assistant village engineer Tony Bunkelman.
Village administrator Tom Christensen said the village has had “people kicking the tires” and looking at the site for possible development.
“Doing this now will also be a cost savings to us to do this now because the guys are already there and we’ve had people looking at the property saying to us that they would need added capacity,” Christensen said.
The current project is just wrapping up and was approved in April to improving Nicholson Road at Dunkelow Road, which is near the Caledonia Business Park. The purpose of the project is to improve the road for truck traffic into the Caledonia Business Park.
A developer is eyeing up property just outside of Franksville and the Caledonia village board approved a resolution last month to expand its 764-acre tax incremental finance district to include the project in the TIF District. But it’s unclear whether the decision on the road is related to this project.
Tax incremental financing district #4 consists of about 765 acres in the southwest corner of the village. Trustees plan to extend municipal sewer and water to the area to spur commercial and/or industrial development.
But the name of the developer, details of the project, and even the boundaries of the expansion of TIF No. 4 were not disclosed at the meeting. Village administrator Tom Christensen and village president Bob Bradley met with the developer earlier this week. Christensen told the village board that the developer plans would like to build just outside of the TIF District, but would like to be included in the district.
A TIF district is a development tool municipalities can use to attract business. The way it works is that a financing district is created and a base value of that district is established by the taxing jurisdictions. The increased value of the property is still charged at the base rate, but the district uses the increased tax revenue to pay for the infrastructure projects.
This means those taxing entities (Village, County, Racine Unified and Gateway) still receive the same amount of tax revenue before the district was created, but the increased tax revenue pays for the infrastructure costs over a 20-year period.
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