Flower Mound Town Council voted 3-2 on March 4 to approve a request from town staff to award a $50,000 consulting contract with Hawes Hill & Associates to move forward with the next step of creating a $20.5 million tax increment reinvestment zone, or TIRZ, for the Lakeside Village development. Council members Sandeep Sharma and Jim Engel cast the dissenting votes. Engel said he wanted to table the item until lawmakers in Austin either pass or deny House Bill 2 and Senate Bill 2. The proposed bills would reduce the rollback rate from 8 percent to 2.5 percent for taxing entities that collect more than $15 million a year in property tax and sales tax revenues. An election with approval by 60 percent of voters would be required for entities to exceed the cap. "We don’t know how things in Austin are going to go, and I’m concerned with that," Engel said. A TIRZ is unique to the state of Texas and allows cities to use property tax revenue to reimburse developers for building public infrastructure in undeveloped areas. A TIRZ does not create any new taxes. Instead, it redirects some of the property tax revenue being generated as a project increases in value over time. On Jan. 31, the final feasibility study on the TIRZ was presented to Town Council, and it indicated total estimated revenues would be between $71 million-$140 million from the project, which staff said would provide sufficient funds to support the requested $20.5 million. Lakeside Village, which will be located west of Lakeside Parkway on 35 acres, will include a mix of retail, restaurants, offices, possibly three hotels, and residential areas, which would come in the form of villas, lofts over retail and up to five towers. Andrea Roy, Flower Mound economic development director, said the cost of the consulting fees and feasibility studies pertaining to the TIRZ can be reimbursed through the TIRZ. Roy said the town is looking at dedicating 75 percent of the new property taxes generated to the TIRZ fund. This means the town would only retain 25 percent of new property taxes generated in Lakeside Village throughout the life of the TIRZ. She said over the course of the TIRZ, $90 million is expected to be generated. She also noted Tarrant County Commissioner Gary Fickes indicated the county is interested in contributing 50 percent of its property taxes generated in the area to the TIRZ. However, she said the county said they do not want any of its dollars that are contributed to the TIRZ fund to be used for the building of a fine arts and performing arts center for the town. "It's not as much of a home run anymore," Town Manager Jimmy Stathatos said. "The idea was the county would help offset some of the cost but [that's not on the table anymore]." Roy said the town would be able to use its portion of TIRZ funds for the fine arts center if council is interested. The council was not able to make a decision on whether to have the performing arts center a part of the TIRZ or not.