City officials are looking to yet another tool to spur revitalization in Mobile’s inner city: a tax increment financing district.

On Tuesday, the Mobile City Council met to consider creating a second tax increment financing district in the city. Tax increment financing districts (TIFs) are designed to spur private investment in under-developed areas of the city, and this TIF would be located in the south Dauphin Island Parkway area.

“In the Hank Aaron Loop, the TIF turned it around to make it look like it does today. We’re expecting the same on Dauphin Island Parkway,” said Council President C.J. Small, who is leading the effort to create the new TIF.

Here’s how it works: the city will invest in projects in the TIF in order to make the area more appealing to private investors, who then, in turn, invest in the community, according to Patrick Dungan, an attorney contracted to assist the city in preparing the TIF. As property values in the TIF appreciate, the city funnels the tax revenue increases into a fund that can be used within the TIF. After 30 years, or when the city’s investments have been reimbursed, the TIF will cease to exist.

The Mobile County Public School System and Mobile County would lose out on the property tax revenue that is funneled to the TIF while it’s in existence, but they would still receive property tax revenue from the property in the TIF, based on the baseline property value—in this case, the 2022 assessed value. Only the revenue generated by the value increasing goes to the TIF.