By The Vineyard Observer Staff
VINEYARD, UT — The transformation of the former Geneva Steel site into one of Utah’s fastest-growing communities is being fueled by a powerful financial tool, the Vineyard Redevelopment Agency (RDA).
By strategically reinvesting new tax dollars, that would be otherwise non-existent if not for the RDA, back into the area where the RDA has funded critical infrastructure, spurring a development boom that has seen property values skyrocket from $244 million when redevelopment began in 2011 to $1.7 billion today. This growth isn’t just building roads and homes; it’s also creating a significant financial windfall for local schools.
The engine behind this success is Tax Increment Financing (TIF), a system that allows the RDA to use new property tax revenues to fund long-term projects.
When an RDA project begins, the current property tax revenue (the “base value”) is frozen in place. 100% of that base amount continues to go to schools, the county, and other taxing entities forever — it’s never reduced, diverted, or taken away. Only the new value created by development is partially reinvested to fuel more growth on the site.
This temporary reinvestment strategy gives the city the ability to solve big problems upfront, like environmental remediation and building infrastructure, which in turn attracts the private investment needed to build a thriving community. The RDA captures 75% of the “new increment”–the new tax revenue from increased property values–to pay for these projects.
The remaining 25% of the new tax increment goes directly to taxing entities, including the Alpine School District. While giving up a portion of new revenue might seem counterintuitive, the school district supported the plan, recognizing it as a long-term investment.
The strategy has paid off. The school district continues to receive its full share of taxes from the original property values, plus its share of the 25% of the massive new tax base. This has dramatically increased the district’s annual revenue from the area.
In 2011, the Alpine School District received just under $900,000 from the Geneva project area. By 2024, that number had surged to over $2.5 million per year.
Once each phase of the TIF expires after 25 years, the RDA’s role concludes, and 100% of property taxes will flow to the schools and other public services, securing a significantly larger revenue stream than would have ever been possible from an undeveloped industrial site.
