A long-term proposal to turn a large piece of land north of the shuttered former Kaiser Aluminum Corp. Mead Works smelter into a mixed-use development has advanced with Spokane County commissioners' approval of a tax-increment financing district for the site.

The commissioners unanimously approved forming the more than 400-acre district at their Oct. 13 regular meeting, but the action drew little attention, perhaps due to the still conceptual nature of Kaiser's vision for the property.

Tax-increment financing allows a city or county to issue bonds to pay for infrastructure improvements in a defined development area, then use much of the resulting increases in property-tax revenues in that area to pay off the debt. After the debt is paid, those additional tax revenues flow to the normal taxing districts. TIF funds are used to pay for publicly owned streets, sidewalks, parks, sewers, and other such infrastructure needs.

In a related action, the commissioners are expected to rule before the end of the year on a proposal by Kaiser Aluminum Fabricated Products LLC to amend the county's comprehensive plan and zoning map to convert the proposed development site there, currently designated for heavy-industrial use, to mixed-use and light-industrial designations. Kaiser Aluminum Fabricated Products is the new name of the former Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp.

Along with the comp-plan change, Kaiser is seeking to rezone about 330 acres of land on the northern portion of the site to mixed use and about 84 acres along the property's southern border for light industrial use.

The commissioners' approval of those two proposals would clear the way for development activity to proceed on the Kaiser property, though specific projects would require additional regulatory review and approval.

Commissioner Todd Mielke says the Kaiser property is significant because of its sheer size, that it lies within the county's urban growth area boundary, and its central location just south of Farwell Road between U.S. 2 and a partially completed section of the North Spokane Corridor.

"By default, it is going to develop," Mielke says, adding that the facilities developed there could add significantly to the county's tax rolls.

Kaiser's conceptual plan calls for the partially wooded, mostly undeveloped land to be developed for retail, office, and light-industrial uses, as well as possible retirement housing. A conceptual map shows commercial uses occupying a large western portion of the site along U.S. 2, with office uses located in a bordering strip of land just east of there, as well as adjacent to Farwell Road to the north and next to the north-south freeway on the east. An envisioned continuing-care retirement community, with up to 700 residential units, would be located essentially at the center of the site, encircled by a new "urban collector" road that would connect both to U.S. 2 and Farwell, and also to Hawthorne Road to the south via a new four-lane arterial.

Light-industrial land along the Kaiser property's southern boundary would abut a long strip of land where Bonneville Power Administration has an easement that separates the proposed development site from the now separately owned smelter property. The Kaiser Mead plant closed in 2002, and the property was sold the following year.

Also envisioned, and included in the TIF district, is a new a four-lane arterial that would extend south from the southwest corner of the Kaiser property and connect the "urban collector" inside the development to Hawthorne Road.

A Kaiser representative who has been involved in the planning effort declined to comment about the project. County officials, however, say Kaiser representatives have told them repeatedly that the company doesn't plan to develop the land it owns there itself, but rather will market the property to developers after the necessary regulatory hurdles have been cleared.

Mielke says he understands, though, that Kaiser already has been contacted by some retailers interested in possibly locating there. He says he's glad to see Kaiser pursuing its long-term vision for the property through a broad approach that includes a comprehensive plan amendment for the entire site, rather than on a piecemeal, less coordinated basis.

Kaiser Aluminum Fabricated Products has been seeking for a number of years to rezone the site for development, but had been slowed by corporate, economic, transportation-related, and site-access obstacles, among others, county representatives say.

Creation of the tax-increment financing district potentially could help accelerate the pace of infrastructure improvements at the site. It's unclear at this point, though, when Kaiser expects to ask the county to issue bonds to help pay for that infrastructure work.

The TIF district there is the seventh such district approved in Spokane County since the Washington Legislature authorized use of the financing tool eight years ago. The six other TIF districts here were created for three development sites on the West Plains, one at Liberty Lake, one at the Iron Bridge office campus on Trent Avenue northeast of downtown Spokane, and one in the west central area that includes the Kendall Yards property along the Spokane River.

The city of Spokane announced recently that it's seeking residents interested in applying to serve on the citizens' advisory board for the latter district, created two years ago. It started an application process for the board in the fall of 2007, but the recruitment process was put on hold because TIF revenues wouldn't start accruing to the city until this year.

The citizens' advisory board will help determine how to spend a portion of the funds raised by the district and will oversee public infrastructure projects identified within the district, but outside of the Kendall Yards development site.