Roseville Council Approves Tax Increment Financing for Sienna Green Apartment Project

The Roseville Council has approved tax increment financing (TIF) for a new 50-unit multi-family affordable housing project at Sienna Green, an apartment complex located near the intersection of Snelling and Highway 36 close to the Rosedale Center mall.

The project should be completed by the end of 2012, community development director Pat Trudgeon said. Tax increment financing is a standard public funding method for large infrastructure improvements; it waives some property taxes during construction with the belief that they will be recouped after the project’s completion.

Sienna Green, formerly known as Har Mar Apartments, currently offers only one-bedroom apartments. When developer Aeon Properties completes construction on the new building, the site will also offer two- and three-bedroom apartments.

“The vote was dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s,” Trudgeon said. The Council voted 4-1 Monday night to OK the TIF financing. 

Tammy McGehee, the single dissenting council member, said she did not object to affordable housing but that it should be built in an area with more green space.

“I don’t think stuck on the edge of a frontage road,” she said, “in an area with no parks is the kind of housing I’m going to be proud of as housing for families with children.”