CC MTG MINUTES MAY 1 2018 ICI
WORKSHOP MEETING OF THE AGAWAM CITY COUNCIL
The following are the minutes from the:
Agawam City Council Workshop Meeting
Tuesday, May 1, 2018 at 7:00 P.M.
Agawam Public Library
Community Room
750 Cooper Street
Agawam, MA 01001
The meeting was attended by eight of the City Councilors with Councilors Letellier and
Rossi absent. Also in attendance were Mayor Sapelli, Planning Director Marc Strange,
Jeff Daley, Will Clark and Ron Weiners.
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 P.M.
1. TR-2018-32 - A Resolution adopting the Walnut Street Extension District
Improvement Financing District(Mayor Sapelli)
' Mayor Sapelli presented TR-2018-32 which would hopefully help development in the
Walnut Street area. Jeff Daley of C.J.C. Development Advisors of Westfield went into a
M more detailed explanation and answered questions. This allows for the creation of a
district to identify properties that would benefit from the DIF by commitment in working
the area better and looking for new future development. Right now there is a lack of
current tax base and any new growth goes towards paying for infrastructure improvement.
Tax dollars earmarked to pay debt service on infrastructure bonding costs. East
Longmeadow/Longmeadow did the first DIF development last year for $21/2 million
public infrastructure improvements. At Monday's meeting, they will just be creating the
district and setting a baseline value. That commits us to twenty years and any increases in
property values and increases in taxes go into the DIF Fund not the General Fund. The
' baseline value is $31,000,000. Council President Johnson asked for a breakdown of tax
revenue for today as well as the last five years so that we can see the historic trend in
values. Marc Strange will have this for Monday's meeting (May 7th). An opportunity
zone was created on the federal level, tax deferment programs were created and this is
also in the DIF District. If this passes on Monday night, new growth for FYI would go
into the DIF.
' The workshop was adjourned at 7:45pm
Respectfully submitted,
Cecilia P. Calabrese
City Council Vice President
cc: Full Council, Mayor, Solicitor