MARRIOTT-SLATERVILLE — The city of Marriott-Slaterville is looking use of a portion of property tax funds generated by the Amazon facility currently taking shape in the city to help upgrade the site.

The funds, totaling as much as $6.18 million, would be used largely to improve roads and other infrastructure around the project location, off 400 North adjacent to Interstate 15.

“It’s not a cash incentive,” said Doug Larsen, an economic development advisor assisting the city in the initiative. That is, the money wouldn’t go to Gardner Batt, the Salt Lake City firm building the warehouse, or Amazon, the retail giant that will use the building as a delivery center. Still, upgrading the infrastructure serving the site could benefit project developers.

The new building is to be completed by the end of the year. Gardner Batt will retain ownership, leasing the building to Amazon for use as a warehouse. As many as 500 people will work at the site, many of them making deliveries to customers in the area, and generating heavy in-and-out traffic at the facility.

The tax funding is being sought through a community reinvestment project area created by Marriott-Slater leaders. Under the plan, 55% to 60% of property tax funds generated from the increased value of the property following completion of the new warehouse would be funneled to the city. Larsen expects the taxable value of the land will jump by as much as $75 million thanks to the Amazon project.

Per state guidelines, as much as $5.37 million of the estimated $6.18 million would be used on public infrastructure. Another $618,000 would be used by the Weber Housing Authority to aid in bolstering affordable housing options and $185,000 would be used for administration. The $6.18 million, coming from tax revenue that would otherwise be distributed to Weber County, the Weber School District, the Weber Fire District and other taxing entities, would be collected over a period of up to 15 years.

An additional $4.83 million or so generated thanks to the increased property values brought by completion of the Amazon facility would still go to the coffers of the varied taxing entities.

Much of the tax-increment finance, or TIF, revenue will be used to reconfigure 400 North to improve ingress and egress to the warehouse, Larsen suspects. Some could also be used to mitigate potential flooding in areas within flood plains.

The community reinvestment project area, totaling around 133 acres, will encompass more than just the Amazon site, extending west across I-15, where a wide swath of undeveloped land is located. Larsen thinks the new warehouse could spur additional development in the area and improvements in other portions of the reinvestment project area could also contribute to the tax-increment funding.

Officials from the Weber Fire District, the Weber School District and most other entities have signed-off on the plans. Weber County, though, is the lone holdout, and county commissioners have asked Marriott-Slaterville to detail more specifically how the city plans to bolster affordable housing options in light of the likely influx of new workers.

Lack of affordable housing is a growing issue across the Wasatch Front.

“Economic development can only take place in a holistic approach, when you have housing and transportation,” County Commissioner Gage Froerer said during an Aug. 10 Weber County Commission meeting on the topic. “That’s the best path forward.”

Froerer said he’ll only back Marriott-Slaterville’s plans if the city “is moving forward with some sort of affordable-housing plan.”

Larsen said Marriott-Slaterville officials are working on a response to county commissioners. Broadly, city leaders “are in the very preliminary and conceptual stages of developing a sustainable housing strategy,” he said, independent of the Amazon project.

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