Possible credits seen for urban renewal area|[11/14/06]

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, November 14, 2006

State and federal tax credits are among programs available to help with improvements property owners may make as part of Vicksburg’s proposed urban-renewal project.

City Planner Wayne Mansfield said the credits could help mitigate any increases in property taxes or rents that may result from rising property values in the area.

The proposed urban-renewal area is south of downtown, between Washington Street and the Yazoo Diversion Canal and Mississippi River.

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The plan is for the city to make improvements or additions such as those of streets, lighting, sidewalks and landscaping and to mandate or encourage the fixing-up by their owners of structures in the area.

A main point of opposition to the plan has been concern over potential displacement of residents there.

Urban-renewal plans allow city governments to acquire property. All members of Vicksburg’s board of mayor and aldermen, however, have said the government does not want to acquire any homes in the area.

The concern was spelled out in a letter to the editor from Vicksburg NAACP president Mary Galtney published Sept. 24.

&#8220Many of the homeowners are some of our lower-paid citizens who may not be able to afford a remodel or overhaul of their homes,” Galtney said. &#8220The majority of homes in the proposed area are small and would not be valued high enough for the homeowner to relocate without acquiring a new mortgage in today’s inflated housing market.”

The plan says 540 structures are in the area, including 149 that have been classified as substandard and are deteriorating or dilapidated.

If the urban-renewal is approved and has its intended effects, the owners of such substandard homes could be hit hardest financially by it. In addition to increasing demand for homes in the area, the changes could drive up property values and thus property taxes, and the owners of such homes could be faced with mandated improvements to their homes.

Most of the area’s residents pay rent for their homes or apartments. Rising property values could also affect such renters in the form of rent increases if increased property taxes or costs of improvements must be paid and landlords pass along to tenants some of those costs.

Mansfield said during a Friday public hearing on the proposed plan that state and federal tax credits exist to help property owners make such upgrades.

The state tax credits are geared toward individual homeowners and may carry requirements from the state department of archives and history. And the federal tax credits are aimed more at properties such as rental homes or apartment buildings, Mansfield said.

Both types of credit can reduce property owners’ bottom-line costs of making improvements, Mansfield said. As such, they can help offset any cost-of-living increases for homeowners or tenants that may result from the project.

&#8220I’ll help you through the process,” Mansfield told property owners who may be eligible for such help.