SANATOGA PA – Before it expired two years ago, Lower Pottsgrove Manager Rodney Hawthorne explains, a special tax-reduction area the township created along and east of Armand Hammer Boulevard attracted new business development that included both industries and retailers. The Board of Commissioners indicated Tuesday (Sept. 7, 2010) it wants to see if that magic can work again.

A similar LERTA tax-reduction district helped revive the former OxyChem property on Armand Hammer Boulevard, commissioners said.

Commissioners authorized Hawthorne and Assistant Manager Alyson Elliott to explore the possibility of creating a new Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance Act (LERTA) district to give incoming business owners property tax breaks within a specific geographic area.

At the suggestion of Montgomery County Economic Development Corp. President Carmen Italia, they’re tentatively thinking a district somewhere near the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422 might be appropriate.

Italia, who commissioners jointly hired with Limerick (PA) Township as an interchange business development consultant, reported in a recent e-mail that two businesses have already expressed interest in locating to Lower Pottsgrove. Their owners are hoping for incentives a LERTA district could provide, according to Italia, who Hawthorne said is trying to coordinate a matching district in Limerick.

Forming a district would permit the township and, if they also agree, Montgomery County and the Pottsgrove School District, to grant graduated tax breaks for up to 10 years to companies that move into and physically improve properties or structures in an area the township has designated as “deteriorating.”

Lower Pottsgrove’s last LERTA district, which ended in 2008, included the former Occidental Chemical facility, the land now occupied by Aldi’s Supermarket and Home Depot, and other parcels stretching east to Sanatoga Station Road. The OxyChem property “was perfect” for such a district at the time, board Vice President Bruce Foltz said. “It’s worthwhile looking into it” now, too, he added.

Under the previous district, all three taxing entities charged newcomer businesses only 10 percent of their normal tax bill during their first year of operations; 20 percent during Year Two, 30 percent in Year Three and so on until full tax payments were made in the 10th year. That resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars saved for business owners, board members acknowledged, but it also brought in new jobs.

Hawthorne said he and Elliott would begin their research and provide details to commissioners in coming weeks.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Sept. 7):

• Commissioners OK Tax-Reduction District Research
• ‘Patient Investigator’ Township’s Officer Of The Year
• Lower Pottsgrove To PennDOT: Good Job, Guys
• Township Examines Tax-Break District Potential

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