The Scottsbluff City Council has begun work to finalize the redevelopment contract with the owners of the Scottsbluff mall and former K-Mart plaza.
The first reading of the ordinance for the development plan for the K-Mart property was discussed during Monday’s meeting.
One of the key parts of making this project a reality will be increasing the levied occupation tax from half-a-percent to two percent. City Attorney Kent Hadenfeldt explained what the added tax would be used for.
“It’s the infrastructure, improvements and the remodeling they want to do. And all of that is part of a larger financing package that they are asking us about,” said Hadenfeldt. “When they first approached us we had been having meetings about how they’re going to finance these improvements. They want to do this as part of the entire package. We want to get it started so that they can start doing some of the improvements.”
The council gave first round of approval of the ordinance, but Hadenfeldt did say that the developers will be working with the city to amend some of the language that’s currently in the ordinance.
