The Urban Renwal Plan is available for citizens to review at City Hall.

 

If you have been following the Harrison URA at all you know that the URA plan calls for a district to be formed that includes parcels owned by Powderhorn Ranch LLC. If Powderhorn Ranch is annexed to the City the new tax dollars generated as a result of that annexation and rezone would go to the URA. Projections prepared by John Austin of Panhandle Area Council, who is a consultant to the HURA, show that $31,000,000 in projects and improvements in the City of Harrison, under the direction of the Harrison City Council will result from the Harrison Urban Renewal Plan.

 

Legislation is on it's way the the State Revenue and Taxation Committee next week that will change URA law. One element of the new law is a provision that no urban renewal district can exceed 15% of the total land area of the City. The HURA proposed district far exceeds that limitation. This provision likely would kill the potential for urban renewal districts for all tiny cities like Harrison - the ones that need it the most.

 

Our urban renewal district cannot be implemented until Powderhorn is annexed. We don't know if that will happen or not. If the annexation is approved it could still be too late for the HURA because the authors of this bill, attorney Ryan Armbruster and Boise's URA Director Phil Kushlan said they are feeling great pressure to make the implementation date of the bill back to January 1, 2010.