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Sherwood city planners are hoping to increase the financial boundaries of their urban renewal area by nearly $10 million.

Tom Nelson, economic development manager for the city of Sherwood, said that next week he will submit to City Council an ordinance that, if enacted, would increase the maximum indebtedness of the city’s URA by $9.7 million to $45.1 million over the next three years. The ordinance takes advantage of a 2009 legislative measure that allows URAs to use an indexing method for a one-time increase of maximum indebtedness.

Nelson said the increase is essential for the city to progress.

鈥淚t allows investment to take place that otherwise wouldn’t happen, and what’s really neat about here in Sherwood is the dramatic increase in the assessed value,鈥� he said.

Nelson said that since the city created its URA in 2000, the assessed values of properties within the district have increased by $180 million.

鈥淭o get almost $10 million more in public development that will drive private development and have it pay for itself in three years is pretty dramatic,鈥� he said.

That’s a big chunk of change for a city that had numerous blighted areas, Nelson said. But he noted that Sherwood once was a bustling city because it included the Portland Brick Company.

鈥淢any of the buildings that you see in downtown Portland were built with brick from the Portland Brick Company,鈥� he said.

When it went out of business, a canning company became the city’s primary employer. But in the mid-1960s it folded, and the property sat vacant.

When the city formed the URA, it purchased that property and several adjacent ones. Officials began working with Portland development company to redevelop Sherwood’s downtown core.

鈥淎 thriving downtown will be a thriving community, whereas communities that don’t have a thriving downtown don’t have as much of a community,鈥� Nelson said.

Jeffrey Sackett, Capstone principal, said he sees a lot of potential and that the company plans to invest more than $30 million. Capstone will redevelop the 6.4-acre ex-cannery site, and build two 50-unit housing complexes as well as several surrounding retail and commercial buildings.

The city has already invested $33.1 million to build a new city hall and public library, purchase property and improve streetscapes. Capstone also is only weeks away from wrapping up construction of the $1.7 million Cannery Square public plaza in the heart of Sherwood.

Capstone and the city are now almost finished with design for a renovation of an abandoned machine shop, adjacent to the square, to become a 13,050-square-foot community center. Nelson said $1.9 million of the new URA money will go toward that project. Sackett said the project team has hired R&H Construction and that it hopes to seek subcontractor bids within the next month.

Sackett said the project sets the scene for future development.

鈥�(The cannery property is) 100 years old and it always was the center of town and was the reason for Sherwood’s existence starting back in 1895,鈥� Sackett said. 鈥淎nd it’s sort of fallen by the wayside because of the auto-oriented development that has happened along Highway 99 and Tualatin/Sherwood roads on the perimeter of town.鈥�

Nelson acknowledged that some people have voiced concerns that the $9.7 million in added revenue will come at the expense of schools and similar districts.

According to minutes from a meeting of the Urban Renewal Agency’s board of directors last month, Elaine Howard of , which the city hired to help draft the URA amendment, addressed those concerns by stating that 鈥渟chools need growth in the community. And to create growth in the community, incentives need to be provided.鈥�

Sherwood has experienced substantial growth.

Nelson said that in 1990, Sherwood had approximately 3,080 people and the median household income was 95 percent of the state average. Today, the city has approximately 18,205 people and the median household income is 160 percent of the state average, or about $80,000.

鈥淪eventy percent of our workforce that lives in Sherwood leaves town everyday to go to work,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o trying to correct that is important to us.鈥�