LaGrange City Council will hold a public hearing at 5:15 p.m. Dec. 11 for a proposed tax allocation district (TAD) development on the American Legion golf course property on Hamilton Road.

If approved, it would be the city’s third TAD since creation of the districts was approved about three years ago.

Developers of the property plan to call the project “Veterans Village,” in honor of its American Legion roots and about 200 seniors they want to attract to senior housing. The American Legion also will keep a building open somewhere on the 107-acre site.

The American Legion golf course property has been on the market for several years and is being developed by the Atlanta-based Integral Group and McCauley and Schmit. McCauley and Schmit are familiar to LaGrange, having worked on the Bryant Lake project.

The developers say the legion site qualifies as a TAD because, while it has access to sewer lines, no sewer lines make it into the property.

“That creates an economic gap that makes this project not feasible without a TAD,” said Rick Padgett of Huntley Partners Inc., who wrote the project’s redevelopment plan.

“You won’t see private investment without a TAD,” he said.

The proposal includes 716 market-rate rental houses and 200 rental houses for seniors. Retail shops will front the Hamilton Road side of the property and it will create $3.2 million in infrastructure improvements, $105 million in taxable development and increase the city’s tax base by $82.4 million.

The city first got a taste of what may be planned when developers came to a workshop this summer with representatives of the Prince’s Foundation. The London-based group helped the city brainstorm on how to develop Hamilton Road and the southeast part of LaGrange.

The city already has two TADs, Mill Creek Station at Davis and Hogansville roads and another site between Hamilton and Whitesville roads adjacent to Interstate 85.

Creation of a TAD allows governments to sell bonds in support of the project. Extra taxes collected on the property, once revitalized, pay off the bonds. Neither the city or residents are on the hook for the bond payments.

Developers of the legion site say this TAD will be “pay as you go” rather than using bonds. That means tax revenue generated by the development will only be given to the developer as the project is built out and taxes are collected.

Since the Troup County Commission and Troup County School System also would benefit from any taxes the project creates, they must enter into an agreement with the city of LaGrange to create the TAD. The school board and commission will take up the matter once the city officially approves it, and the state Department of Revenue has to sign off on the TAD as well.