RENEWAL: Questions of value

While the Jan. 12 editorial on urban renewal is a good primer, it’s mistaken in saying “the health of the agency overall allowed it” to become a key mechanism to develop a “health corridor” around the hospital. Moneywise (what counts) there is no such thing as “the agency overall” — it’s all district by district.

An urban renewal district is forbidden by law from spending money on projects outside its boundary. Its tax increment comes only from properties within the district — so it’s supposed to be spent there.

The other urban renewal districts cannot spend a dime on the “health corridor.” The Health Corridor district’s tax increment can only come from tax increases on properties within its territory. So the financial “health” of the new Health Corridor district depends entirely on real estate prices continuing to go up — and up.

Will prices continue to rise? For how long? Are we near the “top of the market?” The problem is people only see that afterward.

Another point — the whole idea of urban renewal is to “create” rising property values by putting public infrastructure in run down areas, encouraging private investment to come in. But the Health Corridor district is merely “capturing” price increases already happening anyway — not creating any.

The main beneficiary of this, other than the hospital, is Parkwood Business Properties — the private developer that owns many of the medical office buildings in that area. Its name is rarely mentioned, although its owners became wealthy from that development.

DAVID LYONS

Coeur d’Alene