Rochester mayor casts deciding vote to allow purely residential TIF

ROCHESTER - The consequences of Tuesday night's vote that allows up to 100 percent of new properties built in the Granite Ridge District to have no commercial mix may be felt by the city for years to come.
The wording of the proposal says that if a developer can prove the need for housing is great and/or that no commercial entities show interest, then the building can be all residential.
The Granite Ridge District will be financed as a TIF, which will allow much of the infrastructure to be financed by the city. A TIF then allows the city to recoup the cost through future anticipated increases in tax revenues generated by the project.
The vote to implement the new language, which was errantly left out of a City Council vote last July, was 7-6, with Republican Mayor Paul Callaghan casting the deciding vote.
Voting against the measure were Skip Gilman, Tim Fontneau, Dana Berlin, Laura Hainey, Jim Gray and Steve Beaudoin, who predicted today that developers will be jumping on the loophole to put up apartment buildings along Route 11 from the Spaulding Turnpike to the Farmington line.
"I am convinced that most of the development will be residential," Beaudoin said today.
Mike Scala, the city's Economic Development Director and de facto housing czar, assured the council that this is still a conditional use and any developer would have to go before the planning board for their OK.
Opponents to the move questioned whether the planning board would even try to deny a request for 100 percent residential, because the wording of Amendment 275 says if the developer can demonstrate a need for housing, they get the go-ahead.
It's not clear whether so-called affordable housing units would be in the mix. Section 8 housing currently pays about 105 percent of market rate.
In other business, the City Council voted 11-2 to implement an ethics policy with Gray and Beaudoin both opposing it.
"This will stifle free speech, infringes on our lifestyles and it extends authority to the mayor that this city does not give him." Beaudoin said during a discussion of the policy.
The board also turned down putting "Ride Quiet" signs on Salmon Falls Road and approved 6-month 79-E extensions for 22 South Main Street and 73-77 North Main Street.