Although the city of Oak Ridge North lowered its property tax rate by 5 cents, the city budgeted more than $100,000 for planning within the 2013-14 budget to implement the foundation of Oak Ridge North's recently compiled comprehensive plan.

City Manager Vicky Rudy said the city council passed the tax rate of .5244 per $100 of property valuation for 2013, a 5-cent decrease from the 57.44-cent rate from a year ago. Despite the decrease in the tax rate, the budget estimates a 14.2 percent increase in property tax revenue, Rudy said. The increase in property tax revenue is a result of additional commercial property value created in the last year.

With a decrease in the appraised value of homes in Oak Ridge North, Rudy said the average homeowner should pay less for property taxes in 2014. Based on the 2012 median home value of $143,350, the average homeowner would pay $752 in property taxes in 2014.

"[Homeowners] should have a significant impact decrease," Rudy said. "[For] commercial the valuations went up, and we have a lot of new business."

Rudy said the 2014 budget also includes some significant steps forward for the city's recently approved comprehensive plan. The city's Economic Development Corporation budget includes $35,000 for a consultant to compile an open spaces plan, which would examine branding, parks, trails, sidewalks and conceptualize the city's proposed town center along Robinson Road.

She said the consultant will use input from the community to find the best locations for certain amenities and infrastructure, how much they will cost and what their effect will be. A conceptual plan for a town center can also help the city implement building requirements prior to development.

"It's more planning and it's frustrating, because you kind of want to see results," she said. "But you don't want to put a sidewalk somewhere where, in the end, you really didn't want a sidewalk. It's tempting to say, 'Oh, let's put a splash pad in the park.' And then you put it there, and you don't have enough parking."

With a plan in place a year from now, Rudy said the city may be able to begin some projects next year. The city may even be able to begin projects before the 2015 budget cycle, but money for those projects would come from capital improvement money and will not be accounted for in the 2014 budget.

Rudy said the EDC's 2014 budget also contains $535,000 for a contract for a potential hotel and convention center, which the city is currently negotiating and has not been approved. She said the money could be paid back through a future hotel occupancy tax.

Although the EDC did not include funding for it within the 2014 budget, Rudy said the city plans to send out a request for qualifications for a consultant to work with the city on establishing a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, a funding mechanism to help pay for infrastructure. Rudy said the TIRZ could improve the city's economic development opportunities.

"The increase in value [that developers] bring to the property could pay them back," Rudy said. "It's an incentive for them to develop the area, a way of financing infrastructure."

Aside from comprehensive plan initiatives, Rudy said there were not many changes to the 2014 budget from the previous year's budget. The only significant increases came in city staff's salary and benefits, which rose mostly because of inflation and keeping up with salary adjustments, Rudy said. The budget did not fund raises for all city employees.

The city's projected sales tax revenue is also conservative, Rudy said, as the 2014 budget anticipates the same sales tax revenue as is estimated to be received this year. The city anticipates an 8.3 percent increase in sales tax revenue from the 2013 budgeted amount.

"We are not expecting any more increases, so we fully expect to see them," she said. "We think a lot will happen in the next year, but it takes a lot of time for these projects to come in and actually take hold. So we like to stay conservative and not count our chickens before they hatch."