The Putnam County Commission approved implementation of a new Commercial Property program designed to encourage businesses to use clean energy.
Putnam County Attorney Jeff Jones said the action begins the process of adopting the C-PACER program locally.
“This is a program that we’ve been approached on several occasions by developers and so forth,” Jones said. “What C-PACER is, is an acronym that means Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy and Resiliency. It’s governed by a state statute. What it does is it authorizes long-term private financing for qualified improvements for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and things such as that. It’s basically a tool for developers as far as long-term financing goes”
Jones said developers work directly with private financiers, and the county does not provide funding.
“The thing that makes it so advantageous is that you can have long-term fixed rate financing, lower interest rates, and for terms as long as 30 years,” Jones said. “The payments are basically added to the property tax bills.”
Jones said the assessment runs with the land and does not interfere with a future sale. The mortgage obligation remains tied to the property rather than the developer.
Jones said the county previously declined to participate because of administrative demands placed on the assessor and trustee offices. Jones said a third-party administrator will now handle the program, with fees paid by private financiers rather than the county.
“It won’t cost us anything to do the program,” Jones said. “It won’t cost us anything to administrate the program either, because all the fees for the third-party administrator come from the private financer.”
Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said interest from developers prompted renewed discussion about adopting the program. Porter described examples of projects that could not move forward without access to C-PACER financing.
“We had some developers that were wanting to renovate it and along the way, make it energy-efficient, and they wanted to use a C-Pace program,” Porter said. “We didn’t have it, and so they wound up not doing that property, and that property still looks bad today.”
Porter said a large manufacturing company and a potential commercial development have also expressed interest. Porter said the program serves as a development tool that could support both new and existing commercial properties.
“There may be not many companies that will use it, but I think some of the ones that will, it may help to renovate some of our existing properties, and it might help to bring in some new businesses that would want to use it,” Porter said.
Commissioners asked questions about financial risk and oversight before the vote. Jones said the county will serve largely as a pass-through mechanism for assessments collected with property tax bills.
Following discussion, a commissioner made a motion to approve the resolution of intent. The motion received a second and passed by voice vote.
The resolution sets a public hearing for March 9 at 4:00 PM at the courthouse as the next step in formally establishing the program.