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For more information contact:
Cleveland City Council
Katherine Bulava Samsa, Media Relations Manager
(216) 857-7362 |
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| Cleveland City Council unveils new tax abatement policy |
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Cleveland City Council unveiled the City of Cleveland’s new tax abatement policy at a press conference on Monday, May 21, 2007. The piece is scheduled to pass at the Council Meeting held that same night.
“Our goal in reevaluating the tax abatement policy was to learn how to best leverage it as an incentive to bring growth to the City,” said Council President Martin J. Sweeney.
Cleveland City Council engaged the Cleveland State University College of Urban Affairs early in the evaluation process and asked for an independent assessment of tax abatement’s impacts. Once Council was briefed on the results of that study, the Community and Economic Development Committee put in more than 25 of deliberation in order to fully gage the scope and effects of tax abatement. The committee heard from all sides touched by tax abatement, including both the public and private sector development community, the City’s departments that work with and responsible for Cleveland’s development strategy, community development experts, the Cleveland Municipal School District, the Teacher’s Union and residents.
“From our deliberations, we have determined that the policy we are adopting is the most effective way to transform tax abatement into an effective means to attract new residents and new jobs that will help this City prosper,” said Council President Sweeney.
Given the state of the housing market in Cleveland, Council sees the need for strong incentives in order to be competitive. As a result, the policy will remain at 15 years, 100 % abatement for new construction and at the State maximum for rehabilitation, which is 10 years, 100% for 1 and 2 family construction and 12 years, 100% for multi-family construction.
Council is in agreement with Mayor Frank G. Jackson regarding the classification of downtown as a neighborhood. As a result, the new policy contains no distinction between downtown and the neighborhoods, which eliminates tiered abatement downtown.
Understanding the need for energy efficiency and its impact on the future of the City and the environment, Council convened a green building working group, which determined it would be reasonable to expect the development community to prepare for a higher standard for development by 2010. Therefore, on January 1, 2010, new construction will be required to meet energy star standards.
Council believes that stability is important to strong development and, as such, has set this policy in place for the next 5 years. In 2012, after data from the census has been collected and analyzed, Council will take another look to see if the City’s needs have changed.
“We feel that Council has made a well-informed, well-thought out decision that will benefit the City of Cleveland and keep us competitive,” said Councilwoman Sabra Pierce Scott, Chair of the Community and Economic Development Committee. “We expect that development in the coming years will be of high-quality, taking the character of our neighborhoods and the needs of the City into account and will be accessible to those that currently live in the region due both to variety and competitive pricing.” |
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Cleveland City Council
601 Lakeside Avenue
Room 220
Cleveland, OH 44114
(216) 664-2840
(216) 664-3837 fax
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