Hayden’s Urban Renewal Agency could expand its district in the near future, depending on feedback from an open house at Hayden City Hall on Tuesday.

“We started looking at little tweaks we could make to the boundary to clean that up,” HURA executive director Melissa Cleveland said. 

The HURA district is like an investment the city made years ago, Cleveland explained, that the city is benefiting from now. The way the district works, the city receives all the tax money from growth in the downtown corridor, which has ballooned over time. That money, which could have gone to other taxing entities in the county, goes directly to the agency. The HURA board can provide the city with money for projects, or use it with businesses to encourage more business growth, which can generate more money for the district. Growth can then fund street, sewer or city projects the city doesn’t otherwise have money for. 

Dozens of people attended to ask city staff questions and HURA board members about what an expansion could mean, or to campaign for or against the expansion. 

“Public tax dollars don’t have any accountability from Urban Renewal,” Kootenai County resident Paul Mahlow said. “If the city gives us a levy that says, ‘we want to improve the traffic intersection at Government and Honeysuckle,’ that’s accountability. Floating it this way and trying to expand the district … is a misrepresentation of those tax dollars. Right now the public has no right of approval, or disapproval of whatever they’re doing.” 

The City Council appoints members to the HURA board, and can request funds for projects as they come up. The HURA meetings are also public. They receive public comment, and they have public budgets and finances. The board can opt to fund city council projects, or work with businesses in the district on agreements that can “rebate” expenses for building infrastructure, like sewer improvements or street frontages. 

“We’re worried about people moving to the area because of the quality of life we enjoy,” Mahlow said. “If they travel through here and they complain about that intersection, maybe they won’t move here.” 

Mahlow argued that people should be directly involved in approving city projects through a bond levy to maintain accountability. 

Council member Ed DePriest argued that the HURA district is a way for taxpayers to keep low tax rates and still fund city projects. 

“It shifts the tax burden from the residential to the commercial,” DePriest said. “We have multiple millions of dollars in growth leading to needed sewer and infrastructure projects. If we don’t take the HURA money, how do you propose to pay for the much needed road improvements? What’s your alternative? Taxes, bonds or do nothing at all. Two of those are going to raise your taxes. Would you vote to raise taxes?” 

The HURA district can expand once in the span of 25 years and will sunset in 2029. It can also only expand by up to 10%, so the opportunity to expand must be taken soon, or the chance for growth will be missed. 

The expansion could also move to include more intersections, which would allow the city to use HURA funds to improve those intersections, like Honeysuckle Avenue and Government way. It could also include the street frontage along Croffoot Park so HURA funds could continue to fund the park expansion or beautification. 

And for revenue, it could include a portion of land on the northern side of Lancaster that will likely be developed soon.