By DEBORAH GERTZ HUSAR

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

PITTSFIELD, Ill. -- Highlighting what a proposed tax increment financing district will mean to the city, and answering questions from residents, is the goal of a Tuesday night public hearing in Pittsfield.

The hearing begins at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall with Steve Kline, a consultant with the Bloomington-based Economic Development Group Ltd.

Kline is working with the city to develop the TIF district and plan listing millions of dollars in potential projects in an area stretching from the west edge of Pittsfield through the downtown business district, then north through the existing light industrial zone and on to include Pine Lakes, the industrial parks and the airport.

Bill McCartney, the city's economic development consultant, said the hearing is a required step in the process of establishing a TIF. "I'm sure we'll probably have a packed house," he said.

McCartney expects aldermen to give first reading approval to the TIF plan during the regular council meeting, which begins at 7 p.m., and final approval on June 17.

Officials say a TIF district could help the city be more attractive to developers.

"It's actually the only incentive Pittsfield has to attract business," McCartney said. "It was tough to begin with and worse now with the way the economy is."

TIFs are designed to stimulate light industrial, commercial and residential economic development. Districts set a "base value" for property in their boundaries, then any increment, or any increase in property values from improvements, goes into a separate fund for 23 years to provide incentives for more improvement projects.

Several businesses already have signed "inducement resolutions" which include them in the TIF plan but don't guarantee funding for any projects. "They've got to come to the City Council and request funding," McCartney said.

Representatives of taxing bodies voted last month to accept the proposed TIF plan. Under the plan, the Pikeland school district, the largest of the taxing bodies, will not lose any money.

The city began work in 2004 on the proposed TIF district, and McCartney hopes to see the district in place soon. "We've been at this for a long time," McCartney said.

-- dhusar@whig.com/221-3379