The City of Eden Prairie is being asked to provide tax-increment financing (TIF) assistance to The Ellie apartment project proposed along Eden Prairie Road at Lincoln Lane as a way to increase the number of apartments that will have lower rents.
The proposal is among the items the Eden Prairie City Council will consider at its meeting Tuesday, Feb. 8.
TIF is a common financing tool that allows a city to divert a portion of a project’s increase in property taxes to support a public improvement, in this case lower rents. If approved, the plan would help make 60 of The Ellie’s 239 units more affordable. Forty-eight units would be affordable to residents earning at or below 50 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), while an additional 12 units will be affordable to residents earning at or below 80 percent of the AMI. The remaining 179 units would be market rate.
Tuesday’s hearing would not be the last step in the process, as The Ellie project overall has yet to receive final city council approval. Final approval of TIF and the project overall are scheduled for March 1.
For more information about the Feb. 8 meeting of the city council, which starts at 7 p.m. at the Eden Prairie City Center, go to www.edenprairie.org.