Voters in West Point will have a chance to chime in on the city’s development plans.

City Council voted Tuesday night to put a measure on the November ballot to let residents decide if the city should exercise its redevelopment powers, creating a tax allocation district and taking steps to make blighted properties attractive for improvements.

The vote will be on the ballot with the municipal elections.

Mayor Drew Ferguson IV and council members still are educating themselves on how the redevelopment plan will work and plan to educate rresidents as well before the vote.

West Point has been working on a redevelopment plan with the state Department of Community Affairs for most of the year and had to receive permission from the General Assembly to put the measure on the ballot. If council hadn’t voted to add the plan to the ballot before Sept. 2 - in time to get paperwork to the U.S. Justice Department ­- the city would have had to start the entire process over in 2010.

Ferguson said a “tax allocation district” is a key component of the redevelopment plan that the city eventually would enact with voters’ approval.

A district sets aside a specific area in town, allowing bonds to be floated for infrastructure improvements and building projects. Taxes collected on the revitalized property pay off the bonds - neither the city or residents are on the hook for the tax money.

“Let’s say you have a vacant lot that’s generating about $100 a year in taxes,” Ferguson said, giving an example. “If a developer comes and builds a home on the property, it may generate $500 in taxes.”

The first $100 in taxes would go to city coffers, as usual, but the extra $400 would pay off the bond. When the bonds are totally paid off - in about 20 years - the city would collect the entire $500.

Ferguson said tax allocation districts have been successful in Georgia and said Atlantic Station in Atlanta was revitalized through such a measure.

“This is one of the tools we have to profoundly improve our city,” Ferguson said. “It’s not a single answer but it is a tool.”

The city is looking at an area from the Chattahoo-chee River east to Interstate 85 as its redevelopment zone. Most of the properties West Point already has targeted for demolition are in that area, and have or will leave vacant lots.

“This will make land more desirable to developers,” Councilwoman Judy Wilkinson said.

Council will start its education process on the redevelopment plan and tax allocation district at its retreat Sept. 16 in Columbus. An Atlanta law firm responsible for helping a number of cities create their plans will come to explain it to council members.

Some council members, including Donald Gilliam, questioned whether council members would be able to promote the measure to local residents before the vote. City Manager Ed Moon said educating residents on the plan is allowed - and necessary - but individual council members couldn’t advocate for the plan.

“It’s like the (special-purpose, local-option sales tax),” which council members are not allowed to promote,” he said. “You can’t campaign for it.”

Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@ lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.