Dauphin County commissioners asked for support in downtown Hershey tax plan

Dauphin County commissioners are the third taxing body invited to join a panel that will shape the tax package planned to enhance new downtown Hershey development.

A tax increment financing plan is proposed for downtown Hershey, in which increases in tax revenue from development would be diverted to pay for public infrastructure like a parking garage and road improvements.

A total of 233 acres in downtown Hershey could be considered for development in one or more TIF plans, which could be done in phases. The Derry Township Industrial and Commercial Development Authority could use the funds to help pay off loans for $750,000 worth of traffic and property improvements, and a $3 million parking garage just west of the post office.

Derry Township and Derry Township School Board, as well as Dauphin County, would form a TIF committee that determines the parameters of the plan. As the taxing bodies, they would vote on whether to give up the additional tax revenue for up to 20 years for the project.

Members of the panel named so far include Derry Township manager Jim Negley; supervisors John Foley, Matthew Weir, and Marc Moyer; and Derry Township School Board members Brian Shiflett, Christopher Barrett and Michael Frentz.

They hope to have the panel formed by March 24, and to vote on the tax increment financing plan in April. By early summer, they hope to see improvements starting.

"We want to keep things rolling," said Chris Brown, landscape architect with Derck & Edson, landscape architect associated with the downtown Hershey project.

A developer is already in place for the Hershey Post Office property, where Appalachian Brewing Company is planning a brewpub, and two new buildings are proposed on adjacent land.

In addition to the post office, new downtown park land, the area includes the old Hershey Chocolate factory site, old trolley car barn and cocoa extraction plant, old lumber yard property, rail corridor behind Chocolate Avenue and former auto dealership site on East Chocolate Avenue.

Once the financing is paid off, which could take up to 20 years, the taxing bodies would receive the full increase in tax revenue from the development.

Source: Central Penn Business Journal