IDB voted unanimously to enter into a 10-year Payment In Lieu Of Tax agreement with a subsidiary of the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee, which leases unused Department of Energy land and equipment.

The proposal passed by the IDB came from both Roane County Mayor Ken Yager and Oak Ridge Mayor David Bradshaw, who reportedly negotiated the deal with CROET President Lawrence Young.

The agreement will not take effect unless both the Oak Ridge City Council and Roane County Commission approve it - since it provides for a payment to the Roane County Industrial Development Board, too.

Under the agreement, CROET will pay an annual payment to both the Oak Ridge and Roane County industrial boards for the 450 acres at Horizon Center in west Oak Ridge. The annual payment will be based upon a $33.33-per-acre price for unsold property, which would equal $15,000 to both IDBs for 2004.

Furthermore, CROET will provide 0.5 percent of each sale of property to each IDB organization. Both IDBs would use this money for further economic development and sold property would in theory go back on the tax roles (often multi-year tax abatements are used by new industries).

The entire need for CROET to transfer the land resulted from an upcoming tax bill of $55,000 to Roane County and approximately $65,000 to Oak Ridge.

Young said the land transfer was imperative for his organization, so it can finish developing the industrial park. To date, Young said $12 million had been invested. An additional $5 million is needed to complete it, he said.

The agreement passed by the Oak Ridge IDB this week hardly compares with an earlier proposed agreement. The original contractual provisions of the land transfer provided 10 percent of the land sale price going to the Oak Ridge IDB.

Additionally, the original proposal required CROET to not sale the land for less than 70 percent of its appraisal. Under the approved agreement, the land can be sold for as low as CROET agrees to.

Finally, the original agreement provided that sales in excess of the 70 percent minimum would have been split 75 percent to CROET and 25 percent to the Oak Ridge IDB.

The original agreement was pulled after CROET and Roane County began negotiating placing the 470 acres at Horizon Center in the Roane County IDB, instead of the Oak Ridge IDB. The negotiations led to weeks and weeks of speculation and concern, as well as some media attention.