Plymouth’s Common Council turned down a request by the Plymouth Redevelopment Commission to amend the plan for the US 30 and Pine Road TIF District.
Plymouth City Attorney Jeff Houin presented the request from the Commission stating they wished to add a project to those being paid for out of the TIF district funds. The Marshall County Career Innovation Center project, being built at Plymouth High School, had come before the Commission seeking a grant of around $250,000 to help with fixtures to outfit the specialized classrooms in the building.
The project will house technical and trades classes through the North Central CTE Cooperative such as culinary arts, machining, medical assistant, and early childhood education and such classrooms would need specialized fixtures.
Councilman Dave Morrow questioned Houin about the use of TIF money for a project that was not within the boundaries of that district, adding that the downtown TIF district was “tapped out” and money was not available for projects there.
Houin stated that money could be used for such a project if the benefit would be shared by the TIF district and the CIC would train workers across many technical fields benefiting the largely industrial district.
Morrow added that the City of Plymouth’s tax base was considerably smaller than that of the schools, that the Council had already pledged $600,000 in American Recovery Act funds to the project, and that he was not against the project but “wasn’t sure it’s our job as a city to fund this.”
Houin said that the CIC was not a Plymouth Schools project and that the facility was being leased to the cooperative that would provide career instruction to nine schools in the area.
Morrow made a motion to deny amending the project list for the TIF district, and the Council voted in favor of that motion.
