Irony parking only.

A public service announcement produced by the National Trust for Historic Preservation a few years ago and distributed for use by Main Street organizations as part of a national media campaign.

River View: Newspaper editorial expresses "hopes" for economic development.

That the News and Tribune's editorial board persists in perpetuating a fallacy, wherein the YNCA and River View both are cut from the same bolt of economic development cloth, is depressing. There are other reasons to be depressed, but at least it goes to show that someone's reading DNA's press releases.

OUR OPINION: River View risk could bring rewards

... There is no question $12 million is a lot of money, and an economic risk. What happens if the city builds the garage, the economy tanks again and the proposed condominiums and other retail slated for the development fail to materialize? The city and its citizens would be stuck holding a $12 million parking garage, a garage that would sit empty and be the punch line of future jokes.

But in order to grow and attract businesses, governments sometimes have to take a leap of faith, and provide incentives. That is what New Albany is doing. The city would build the garage, with hopes it will spur development.

Carl Malysz's lost comment at "Are you TIF enough?"

Last night, Carl Malysz left a comment on the post, "Are you TIF enough?" This morning it was gone; I've been asked why, and I don't know.

As blog administrator, I am notified by e-mail when comments are posted, and the notification came through fine. Later, the space was blank. The good news is that for the fist time in two weeks, the "compose" screen here works properly. At any rate, here is the lost comment from Carl Malysz:

According to my sources on the City Council, the Resolution for River View will not be acted upon this coming Thursday, April 21st. That said, I will not post Q&A on the City's website until a later time. However, I will attempt to clarify what is in process with River View right now.

Mainland Properties is asking the City to issue Economic Development Bonds (EDBs) through an ordinance adopted by the Common Council. The process includes a public hearing that will be conducted by the Economic Development Commission (EDC), after which the EDC will adopted a Resolution regarding the project and bond issue. But the EDB process has not yet begun.

The New Albany Redvelopment Commission is being asked to fund future pro rata bond payments for the public improvements of the project-- the parking garage and the plaza-- by pledging the future tax increment generated by the development.

The TIF process is just getting started. The NARC passed a Resoluiton to include the parking garage and plaza into the TIF district; the NACPC ratified the NARC Resolution; but the process has been stalled at the Common Council as indicated above.

After the parking garage and plaza become part of the TIF district plan, the NARC will have to pass resolutions/other actions to pledge the TIF to the project. That would be done sometime before the Common Council would pass an ordinance authorizing issuance of the EDBs.

The EDBs contemplated will not be a risk to the City of New Albany. All that is being pledged or promised, if you will, is the tax increment from the River View Development. No one is proposing a property tax back-up or an EDIT back-up or any other back-up at this time. If the Common Council was asked for a back-up, it would have to authorize it. (Such a back-up is not automatic with EDBs and again, I will repeat, no one is asking for a back-up. And these are NOT TIF bonds...)

The public improvements will be built by Mainland Properties. There will be a lease with the City to ensure public use and access while the bonds are being paid off. After the bonds are paid off, there will be a transfer of ownership of the parking garage and plaza or another long-term agreement to ensure public access and use.

All of this will be controlled by ordinances, agreements, bond documents, et cetera. It is way to early to produce all of this stuff right now. We are only at the beginning of an incremental process that will likely take several months to complete. But I am open to questions and suggestions.

Either Li'l Stevie is writing Erika's lines, or vice versa.

Today's Tribune column: "On certain hot local topics."

Elements of today's column have appeared here in the blog. I generally refrain from verbatim reuse, a preference greatly assisted by a tendency toward compulsive (and annoying) revisions and rewrites of my material. I'm not at all sure what that means, except that there are too many words and not enough time.

BAYLOR: On certain hot local topics

Let's hope that the sun shines into the obscured conceptual niches of the political dark side, and tiny shoots of rationality start poking their way toward the light. If not, perhaps we can continue to rely on the council's only officially declared Republican to cast swing votes that really matter.

Redevelopment: Say the secret word and win a $12 million parking garage.

All right, campers. The straw man's finally out of the closet, the number's on record, we've passed from scare-mongering innuendo to concrete proposal, and now the process of wresting downtown's future from the cold, deadened, bitter hands of the obstructionist cadre can begin in earnest.

Will Jeff and Pat, who know better, be on board for this next pivotal phase, or do they continue to pick tea-bagging nits in the Kochertian gloom? Let's hope that the sun begins to shine into the obscured conceptual niches of the political dark side, and tiny shoots of rationality start poking their way toward the light. If not, perhaps we can continue to rely on the council's only officially declared Republican to cast swing votes that matter.

I'll be joining the Trib's Daniel Suddeath this afternoon as part of a discussion on community media (I think) at Floyd Central High School. My job is to represent the blogging sphere, and his to chart the evolving dimensions of print media. Sounds like fun to me. Can I drive a pickup truck festooned with brewery logos onto school grounds?

Developer gets two years to purchase civic plaza property in New Albany, by Daniel Suddeath (Tribune)

The New Albany Redevelopment Commission approved a step Tuesday in a process to bring an estimated $30 million development downtown by 2013.

Referred to as the New Albany Civic Plaza Waterfront Development and part of Scribner Place phase two, the proposal would see the city fund a $12 million parking garage adjacent to the Floyd County branch of the YMCA of Southern Indiana.

On top of the garage, developer and attorney Jack Bobo would fund a three-tiered building with residential, retail and office space for lease and sale.