Tax Increment Finance (TIF) Districts has been a topic of discussion in our public meetings for well over a year now. It was the existence of these funds that inspired the partnership of PRCC with PRBA (Business Assoc.) and PRDC (Development Corp.) to obtaining a broader vision for our business district. Admittedly, there has been a long learn-as-you-go process around these funds. Much of the learning has come by having conversations with City of Cincinnati (which I will refer to as ‘City’ going forward) departments and officials. What I hope to accomplish here is to level the understanding among PR residents on what these funds are and, more so, what they are for.
 

TIF Districts are areas mapped out by the City and applied for with the state of Ohio. Once approved by the state, the increase in property tax revenue within the district become additional revenue the City can use for public improvements - in fact, it is codified in state law that the funds must be used within the district in which the funds are accumulated. It is also coded into law that 25% of TIF District revenue is to be used for affordable housing. Here is the City page on TIF Districts.
 

The PR TIF District was drawn up in 2019. This process included engagement with PRCC. While I do not have insight into when it was approved by the state of Ohio, it seems that funds began to accrue in 2023. The City website linked above shows current balances of the TIF Districts across the city.
 

The first key lesson I learned about TIF funds is they are controlled by City Council in the same way income tax revenue is. The City is committed to neighborhood engagement concerning the use of TIF funds, but they are still the decision makers in end. City officials and administrators have reminded us of this several times in the past year. So, the funds must be used within PR’s TIF District, but it is not “our” money. This lesson spurred the partnership of PRCC, PRBA, and PRDC to work towards a proactive plan as opposed to simply being reactive to developer requests for the funds. This approach continues to receive praise from City leadership.
 

The second key lesson is that City leadership’s priority for TIF funds is economic development (jobs and businesses) and housing. The City website above includes the mention of infrastructure and even particular project examples. Further conversations with City departments in the pursuit of pedestrian safety and traffic calming improvements for our business district revealed that the City’s priorities are for economic and housing development first, and the infrastructure that supports that development second.
 

I have mentioned the partnership of PRCC with PRBA and PRDC, so I would like to address that subject. The original project was to obtain a broader vision for our neighborhood business district (NBD), as previous plans only included ‘The Triangle’. Yard & Co. is the local urban planner we worked with on this project, which included an operational suggestion: create a cross-organizational committee that works to strategize the use of TIF funds to move towards redevelopment in PR that accomplishes the desires of the neighborhood and the priorities of the City.
 

In our March 2026 public meeting it was shared that the committee would be organized as follows:

• Each organization will have two seats consisting of their Board President and a member of their organization the President appoints (I have appointed Jessi, our Treasurer to be our second)

• The committee shall vote on a ‘Resident-at-large’ as the seventh seat (2:2:2:1) (I have nominated a resident with affordable housing expertise, which has yet to be voted on within the committee)

• The committee shall vote on a facilitator among its members (The role of the facilitator shall be to organize meetings among the members and facilitate meeting agendas)

• Meetings of the committee shall be quarterly. Ad hoc meetings shall be added as necessary (The first meeting should occur prior to the end of March)

• The committee shall be strategic and not decisive in nature (Each organization to take input from and provide updates to their own members)