By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

WEST CHESTER TWP. - Trustees unanimously voted late Tuesday to ask the courts for permission to use tax increment financing to pay for a $3 million renovation for the 121-year-old Muhlhauser Barn.

West Chester officials want to borrow the money to transform the barn into a community conference center at Beckett Park. The barn also would serve as a recreation center until the proposed $32 million center can be built.

Plans for the recreation center are expected to be announced soon, Assistant Administrator Judith Carter said Tuesday. It most likely would be located across the street from Lakota West High School off West Chester Road, adjacent to property proposed for an open-air mall.

In the meantime, to pay off the barn debt, township leaders are hoping to use property tax revenues from tax increment financing districts along Union Centre Boulevard and Ohio 747. Trustees say the barn could be used for meetings that would hold several hundred people and be an asset to businesses in the area.

Tax increment financing is one of the few revenue sources available adequate for paying to renovate the barn without negatively affecting other services, trustees maintain.

The township, however, needs a judge to approve the deal. Tax increment funds - a special pool of money made of property tax revenues generated by local projects - typically are used for infrastructure such as roads.

To use tax increment financing for park improvements and recreational enhancements, township officials must file a bond validation suit with the Butler County Court of Common Pleas.

Other localities such as Sycamore Township have been permitted to use tax increment financing for community centers, according to a Nov. 4 letter to trustees from a Fairfax consulting firm the township has hired to write a study it can use to argue its side in court.

If the plan flies, the Muhlhauser barn would be moved this spring or early summer. The Muhlhauser family has pledged $40,000 to disassemble and move the building for the township, Ms. Carter said.

The renovated barn should then support itself with rent revenues, trustees contend.

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com.