Far West — The Far West City Council and the city’s Community Reinvestment Agency voted unanimously Oct. 15 to approve a participation and development agreement for the Far West Landing project, with staff directed to replace a direct naming of the retailer Target with a reference to the project plan and to allow the city engineer and city attorney to make minor technical edits to exhibits and road-maintenance language.

City staff presented a redlined version of the agreement that reduced the total property tax increment cap to $5,240,000 from an earlier $9,000,000 and cut the set-aside for housing from $1,100,000 to $540,000 after school-district and county participation became uncertain. Liam, a city staff presenter, told the council the changes reflected recent conversations with taxing entities and recalculations by city consultants.

The change to remove Target’s name directly from the signed agency document resolved a weeks-long negotiation over whether the retailer should be listed. Liam told the council, “This agreement that we have before us is an agreement that belongs to Far West City. This isn’t anybody else’s agreement.” Councilmembers said they would rather close the matter now than continue to trade revisions.

Council members described the removal of the name as a practical compromise to avoid stalling the deal. Boyd, a councilmember, said doing so would avoid “poking the bear” with Target and allow the city to move forward while retaining protections in the other public project documents that name the retailer.

Doug, the city’s fiscal advisor, cautioned that the participation of other taxing entities remained uncertain. He said the numbers were adjusted because ‘‘if they don’t show up, they don’t show up,” meaning that if taxing districts decline to participate in tax-increment financing there is no mechanism to force them to do so and the available increment will be smaller.

After questions about road-maintenance language in the exhibits and minor technical clarifications requested by the city engineer, Councilmember Katie moved to approve the participation and development agreement with three stipulations: remove the retailer’s direct name and rely on references to publicly available project-plan documents; permit the city engineer and city attorney to make minor technical edits to exhibits; and tighten road-maintenance language as needed. Boyd seconded the motion. A roll-call vote — Tim, Katie, Boyd, David and Bob — was unanimous.

The council and agency approved the agreement conditioned on the city attorney and engineer finalizing the technical edits, and staff said a revised copy would be circulated midweek for the council to review before signatures. City staff and the CRA reiterated that more steps remain: the taxing entities must decide whether to participate and the agency must finalize its project-area plan if the taxing bodies’ positions change.

Background: The development agreement covers tax-increment incentives and related obligations for a proposed retail-anchored project in Far West. Council and staff repeatedly said that although Target and the developer have been involved in negotiations, the agency’s agreement is the city’s document and can be revised or declined by the city.

The council voted to approve the agreement at the Oct. 15 meeting. Staff said they will incorporate the agreed edits and circulate a final copy for signing once the city engineer and attorney complete their technical revisions.