Clearfield dissolves 35-year-old RDA 8 with about $1 million left to spend
Clearfield's council voted 4–0 in June to dissolve Redevelopment Project Area 8, which stopped collecting tax increment in December 2025. A staff memo said about $1 million remained, and state law requires any funds unspent at the end of the dormancy period to be returned to taxing entities.
Continuing story: Auditing Clearfield
The Clearfield City Council voted 4–0 on June 9, 2026, to approve Ordinance 2026-09 dissolving Redevelopment Project Area 8, according to the meeting's approved minutes. Councilmember Danielle King moved to approve and Councilmember Dakota Wurth seconded. Mayor Pro Tem Nike Peterson and Councilmembers Karece Thompson, Wurth and King voted yes; Councilmember Megan Ratchford and Mayor Mark Shepherd were absent. [3]
The agenda summary says the project area "was created in January 1991 with 165 parcels" and "expired as of December of 2025 and no further tax increment funding will be collected." [1]
What staff said remains
A memo to the Community Development and Renewal Agency for its May 26 work session, prepared by Assistant City Manager Spencer Brimley, says the area, also called Northgate/Eastside CBD, was created Jan. 22, 1991, through Ordinance 91-2. It says RDA 8 "does have approximately $1M in remaining funds" and that "state law will require that we spend those funds within the next few years." [2]
The June 9 agenda says "there is a remaining balance of tax increment funds that are required to be distributed within five years of the expiration date." At the meeting, Brimley said the city would have five additional years to use and distribute the remaining funds for redevelopment purposes, the minutes say. [1][3]
The memo quotes state law: a project area that began a dormancy period before May 6, 2026, shall "be dissolved five years after the day on which the project area began the dormancy period" and distribute any unexpended funds. An agency with funds remaining at the end of the dormancy period "shall return a proportionate share of the unexpended funds to each taxing entity." [2]
A separate memo says SB 228, passed in the 2026 legislative session, took effect May 6, 2026, and that staff established that RDA 8 will be regulated by the dissolution rules that applied before SB 228. Staff said a resolution confirming that was not required by statute but was recommended by the agency's consultant. [2]
The agency's other money
The draft fiscal 2027 agency budget in the May 26 packet shows no tax increment for RDA 8 in 2025 or 2026 and none budgeted for fiscal 2027. It budgets $1,834,066 of tax increment from the agency's other project areas. [2]
The agency-wide fund held $13,079,700 at June 30, 2025, including $12,370,195 restricted for redevelopment capital improvements. That figure covers all project areas; the audited report does not break out RDA 8. [4]
The roughly $1 million is a staff estimate in a May 2026 memo, not an audited balance. Dissolution does not by itself show how or when remaining funds will be spent or returned. The $13,079,700 balance is agency-wide.
Sources
- Clearfield City Council · June 9, 2026 agenda packet
- Clearfield Community Development and Renewal Agency · May 26, 2026 work-session packet
- Clearfield City Council · Approved minutes, June 9, 2026
- Clearfield City · FY2025 ACFR, governmental funds statements
Reporting by The Utah Ledger from the public records above. AI-assisted, checked against those records.