Plans for more than 140 homes in a proposed neighborhood along State Avenue are working their way through Tonganoxie City Hall, and developers will be seeking a property tax break to help fund the project.

Tonganoxie city council members have agreed to hold a public hearing on July 17 to consider a plan to create a special housing district for the project that will allow it to use new property taxes generated by the neighborhood to pay for project expenses such as land acquisition and construction of infrastructure such as roads, sidewalks, water lines, sewer lines, landscaping and other such costs.

Council members heard details of the plan at this week’s City Council meeting, but took no action on the project other than to set the formal public hearing for 7 p.m. on July 17 at the City Council Chambers.

Plans presented to council members included the following details:

— The project, which is dubbed Stone Creek, is slated for vacant property that sits between State Avenue and the existing neighborhood that includes Rock Creek Drive, Valley View Drive and Stone Creek Avenue.

— Plans call for 142 single family homes to be constructed on lots ranging in size from 6,000 square feet to 16,000 square feet.

— The developer — Kansas LD LLC — would complete the project within 24 months after receiving approval from the city.

— The development could receive up to $9 million in rebated property taxes to help pay for development costs, but that amount is not guaranteed. The ultimate amount will depend on how development occurs and how much that new development generates in new property tax revenue.

The city is being asked to use the provisions of a “rural housing incentive district,” that allows for new property taxes created by new development to be used to help pay for development costs, if certain guidelines are met.

As proposed the project would not receive any more than $9 million in rebated taxes. It could receive less if the development has failed to generate that amount of new taxes in its first 18 years of existence. At the end of 18 years, the tax rebate program ends and the city and other taxing jurisdictions are entitled to all property taxes that the development creates.

The development company Kansas LD LLC is registered to a Fayetteville, Arkansas address that is connected to a large, residential development company, Rausch Coleman Homes, according to corporate filing information with the Kansas Secretary of State’s office.