The Traverse City Downtown Development Authority's TIF Plan 97 expires December 31, 2027 — twenty-one months from this publication. The replacement plan, called Moving Downtown Forward, must reach the November 2026 ballot to preserve continuity of TIF funding for the DDA's capital improvement program. That requires a June 2026 board vote approving the replacement plan for submission to the ballot. The April 13 joint session with city commissioners will focus on two key variables: plan length and revenue share. Those two variables together determine the total funding available for the thirteen capital projects totaling more than $120 million that the DDA has identified.

Michigan now requires a ballot vote for TIF renewals — a legislative constraint that did not exist when the current TIF 97 plan was established. That adds a layer of public accountability and political complexity to a process that has historically been a negotiation between the DDA board, the city commission, and the taxing jurisdictions. The ballot requirement means that the replacement plan must be designed to win public approval, not just inter-governmental negotiation.

The Plan Length Decision

The plan length decision is fundamentally a question about the scope of capital investment that the replacement plan can support. A 15-year plan generates an estimated $90.4 million in total TIF revenue over its life. A 30-year plan generates an estimated $213.3 million. The delta — $122.9 million — represents the difference between a capital program that can fund a subset of the identified projects and one that can fund all of them.

TIF Replacement Plan: Revenue by Term Length
Source: Traverse City DDA · Moving Downtown Forward Plan Documents, March 2026

The political calculus cuts in both directions. A longer plan generates more revenue and supports a more ambitious capital program, which is the DDA's primary argument for the 30-year option. A shorter plan requires fewer years of commitment from taxing jurisdictions and presents a smaller total public commitment for voters to approve — which may be the stronger political argument in a ballot environment where large long-term commitments face skepticism.

The precedent from other Michigan DDA TIF renewals is instructive but not determinative. Kalamazoo's DDA has operated with long-term TIF plans. Ann Arbor's DDA has historically enjoyed strong public and political support. Traverse City's situation is different enough — smaller scale, different taxing jurisdiction composition, different political environment — that importing another city's approach directly may not work.

The Revenue Share Negotiation

TIF districts capture the tax increment generated by development above the base year — the increase in assessed value that is redirected from the taxing jurisdictions' general funds to the TIF district's plan. The revenue share negotiation is about what percentage of that increment the DDA captures versus what percentage flows to the broader taxing jurisdictions (county, township, school district, etc.).

The DDA's position is full capture — 100% of the tax increment goes to the TIF plan. Full capture maximizes the capital available for projects and is the traditional DDA position. The taxing jurisdictions' position is a more equitable distribution — redirecting a portion of the increment to their general funds and reducing the revenue available to the TIF plan.

If the DDA achieves full capture on a 30-year plan, the total revenue is $213.3 million. If taxing jurisdictions successfully negotiate a split that reduces DDA capture to, say, 70% of increment, the effective revenue is approximately $149.3 million — the difference being $64 million in reduced capital capacity. The revenue share negotiation, in other words, is potentially more consequential than the plan length decision.

The Capital Project List

The DDA has identified thirteen capital improvements totaling more than $120 million as the project list for Moving Downtown Forward. The specific projects reflect both deferred maintenance on existing infrastructure and new investment priorities. The plan length and revenue share negotiations determine which projects can be funded within the replacement plan's financial envelope.

A useful framing for the board's June decision: identify the minimum capital program that justifies a TIF replacement plan, and identify the additional projects that the longer plan and full capture revenue make possible. Structuring the replacement plan around a minimum viable capital program — the projects that have the strongest public support and clearest near-term need — while describing the additional scope that longer-term planning enables gives the board a clearer decision framework than treating all thirteen projects as equally essential.

The Ballot Strategy

Michigan's ballot requirement for TIF renewals is new enough that there is limited precedent for what wins and what doesn't. The Traverse City DDA should assume that the ballot campaign will require active engagement with a broader constituency than the property owner and governmental audience that TIF renewal negotiations have historically involved.

Downtown voters who benefit from the DDA's programs and capital investments are the natural base for ballot support. Building that base requires communicating the connection between the TIF revenue and specific, visible corridor improvements that voters can point to — clean streets, maintained streetscapes, parking infrastructure, event programming. Abstract arguments about TIF mechanics will not win a ballot campaign; visible results from past TIF investments will.

Key Takeaways

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