MADISON— Residents will gather for a special town meeting tonight to approve amendments to the town’s tax-increment financing agreement with tomato grower Backyard Farms.

The 7 p.m. meeting is expected to include a vote on the amendments, which would expand the district and a list of municipal projects that revenue from the agreement would fund. Tax-increment financing, or TIF, agreements are methods of funding economic development using increases in tax revenue from private investments. The revisions, if approved, would mark the second time the agreement has been updated since it was initiated in 2006.

New projects that would be funded by the agreement are projected to cost about $21.6 million and would include reconstruction of various roads, including River Road, Old Country Road, Ward Hill Road and Russell Road, as well as general road maintenance; costs associated with the construction of a new public safety building for fire and rescue personnel; creating multi-use recreational trails; and upgrading the town’s public boat landings on the Kennebec River and Lake Wesserunsett, according to an application for amendments to the TIF.

The original development plan, created in February 2006, included a $210 million investment by U.S. Functional Foods LLC, the company that then owned Backyard Farms, to develop the greenhouses and River Road facility.

It was amended once in 2008 to add 85 acres of town-owned public roads and revise municipal projects that would benefit from the funding.

If the changes are approved Monday, they will then be sent to the state for approval before they can be adopted.

The meeting is scheduled to be held in the Madison Junior High School auditorium.

Rachel Ohm — 612-2368 rohm@centralmaine.com


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.