The Champaign City Council met on Tuesday for its weekly meeting, beginning with District 3 Council Candidate interviews. The meeting focused on a council bill surrounding the implementation of a tax increment redevelopment project.
There are three candidates to fill the vacant District 3 position — Jamar Brown, Shauna Claiborne and Justin Micháel Hendrix.
After the council conducted all interviews, they approved minutes from May 14 and 15. These included the May 14 Regular Study Session and Community Civic Event Champaign Police Department Memorial Ceremony, as well as the May 15 Community Civic Event Police Department Employee Awards Ceremony.
The council approved this motion.
The council then took action on a council bill: a resolution expressing the city’s intent to pursue the creation and approval of a tax increment redevelopment project area and to provide assistance for the redevelopment of the Country Fair Shopping Center, which has been up for sale since October 2022.
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The purpose of this resolution is to convey the city’s intent to create a new tax increment finance (TIF) district in multiple areas — South Downtown, Country Fair and Round Barn — and support efforts to redevelop the Country Fair Shopping Center.
According to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, tax increment financing is a funding system that utilizes sales and property tax revenue generated within the TIF district in order to “encourage new economic development and job creation” in that area.
Bruce Knight, planning and development director of the city of Champaign, proposed this resolution.
“The idea would be to convert it into a more modern mixed-use commercial development and to create something that serves not only the immediate residents in the area, but the entire community with something unique and different,” Knight said.
The council passed this bill.
The TIF district will not be completed before this upcoming fall.
The meeting concluded with general audience participation, followed by council comments.
