ROCK HILL > Commission favors shrinking redevelopment area — Rock Hill's Tax Increment Finance Commission voted Tuesday to significantly shrink the size of the redevelopment area at the northwest corner of Manchester and McKnight roads. The 27.9-acre site that was once to be home of a Target and other stores would now be only 2.9 acres. The TIF area would now include only seven properties.

If passed by the Board of Aldermen, the revised plan would erase the blight designation homeowners have been living under for the last several years. Officials said the measure would likely be on the board's agenda Sept. 21.

A surprise speaker at the meeting was Jonathan Browne of Novus Development Co. which built the Market at McKnight. Novus was also supposed to develop the northwest corner but the city terminated its redevelopment agreement and granted redevelopment rights to Miller Weingarten and Hutkin Properties, which planned to build a Target there. But when the economy soured, Miller Weingarten backed out.

Browne said he wanted to correct the idea that Novus backed out of the project. Novus was asked "to terminate our agreement when Hutkin came forward," he said. That was before his time deadline and the occupancy of 70 percent of Market at McKnight, which was to trigger the development of the northwest project, he added.

JEFFERSON CITY > Judge puts real estate tax measure on ballot — A judge on Tuesday ordered a real estate tax initiative to appear on Missouri's November ballot, concluding that the measure's supporters submitted enough valid signatures from voters. Earlier this month the Missouri secretary of state's office concluded that too few signatures were submitted for the initiative to appear. Cole County Circuit Judge Paul Wilson overruled that and ordered election officials to place the measure on the ballot.

The initiative would amend the Missouri Constitution to bar real estate transfer taxes, which the state does not levy. Transfer taxes can be collected when houses, land and other real estate is sold. Critics of the tax contend people already pay property tax on their homes and land.

The ballot measure is backed by the Missouri Association of Realtors, who fear elected officials could be tempted to start levying the transfer tax on real estate sales.

From correspondent and wire reports