By Laura Spencer
Kansas City, MO – Update: On Friday, the PIEA unanimously approved the 31 abatement requests from 18 applicants. Property owners will receive $1.6 million in abatements; in exchange, they'll make about $759,000 in improvements.
A Kansas City development agency today is expected to review applications for tax abatement for property owners in the Crossroads Arts District, an area hit hard this decade with rising property values and taxes. KCUR's Laura Spencer reports.
The tax abatement program in the Crossroads Arts District is the city's first specifically designed for properties with arts and cultural uses such as galleries or studios for artists. And thirty one tax abatement requests are up for review by the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority, or PIEA. Paul Tyler is the grants director for the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City and serves as co-chair for the Advisory Committee, which screens applications before going to the PIEA. Tyler says the committee was pleased with the number of applicants and expects to get more.
Paul Tyler: "There was such a huge increase in property values between 2006 and 2007 that that really has driven a lot of the interest in signing up for the program...I mean, the rise has really been extraordinary."
If tax abatement requests are approved, property taxes would be frozen at 2006 levels for 10 years. Laura Spencer, KCUR News.
