Hillsboro: City Staff Propose $2.3 Million in Enterprise Zone Fees for Block 56 Campus

Hillsboro would give the Hillsboro School District up to $2.3 million from a fee paid by businesses in the city’s enterprise zone, under a proposed agreement tied to the planned health and education campus on downtown Block 56. The city’s Finance Committee takes it up at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, and will decide whether to recommend it to the City Council.

The request came from the district, according to a staff report in the committee’s packet by Chief Financial Officer Michelle Wareing and Economic & Community Development Director Dan Dias. The district, Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center and Portland Community College are building the campus on Washington Street between 5th and 6th avenues, the report says.

According to the report, the district is “targeting two critical properties” next to the campus to eventually develop a southwest campus area. It asked the city for $2.3 million more “to help accelerate this campus design.” The packet does not identify the two properties.

Adding up the city’s share

The new money would add to state Gain Share dollars the city has set aside for the district. Gain Share is a portion of state income tax tied to Intel’s tax-break deal. The staff report says the city “has provided $6 million in Gain Share funds” to the district and puts the total with the new payment at $8.3 million.

The city would also give the project a small city-owned parcel on Block 56, next to the district’s properties. The report lists no value for it. The table below traces each piece through city documents, including the Oct. 20 Gain Share agreement Focus Hillsboro reported on Oct. 23.

Figures come from the Oct. 20 council staff report and agreement and the Nov. 10 Finance Committee staff report. Our calculation: $4.5 million plus $1.5 million equals the $6 million Gain Share total, and adding $2.3 million gives $8.3 million.

By our calculation, the enterprise zone payment would raise the city’s cash total for the district by about 38%. The two pots differ in one way. The staff report says the district can use Gain Share “for any project,” though it has spent some on this campus, while the $2.3 million “is restricted” to the campus project.

Where the fee money comes from

The staff report says the district can use Gain Share money “for any project,” while the $2.3 million “is restricted for the H-HEC project.” The agreement’s opening clauses say the city sponsors the Hillsboro Enterprise Zone to encourage business investment and job creation. Its Community Service Fee is “funded by the businesses utilizing the Enterprise Zone” and is meant for workforce development, raising education and job skills for residents in and near the zone.

The city re-designated the zone in April 2017, the agreement says, and this deal covers fee money collected through the 2025-26 budget year. The staff report says the adopted budget, labeled “BY 2027-29,” does not include this expense and that a budget adjustment, a formal change to the spending plan, will be needed. It adds that the Enterprise Zone Fund has enough money.

A start date before the vote

The agreement also sets its own calendar. Its first section sets an effective date of Nov. 1, 2026, which comes before the committee meeting and before any council vote; the packet does not explain that date. The agreement expires June 30, 2027, and the staff report says all the money must be spent by then.

To draw money, the district would send invoices describing each expense and showing it meets the fee program’s guidelines. The city would then pay “within or around 30 days,” the agreement says. Ownership of any property bought with the money would rest “solely with the purchasing party.”

The staff report also states that “no community engagement was conducted” for this agreement. It points instead to an April 2026 meeting on Blocks 56 and 67 and a March 2026 talk to the Chamber’s Leadership class.

How to speak on Nov. 10

Public comment opens the meeting. The committee meets in Civic Center Conference Room 113 and on Zoom, meeting ID 813-4024-3051, and the city’s meeting page links to the agenda and Zoom details. Each speaker gets three minutes. In person, fill out a yellow card and give it to the City Recorder, with 10 copies of any written statement.

To speak by Zoom, register with the City Recorder’s Office before 3 p.m. on Nov. 10 by emailing [email protected] or calling 503-681-6269. Remote speakers cannot share their screens or turn on their cameras, and the agenda asks that presentation materials be sent as written testimony.

The packet does not say when the council would vote. The city’s meeting calendar lists the next council meeting for Nov. 17 at 6 p.m., and its agenda had not been posted when checked on Nov. 6.

Top image: Illustrative image, 2016: construction of Timberland Middle School in Cedar Mill, Washington County (not the Block 56 site). Photo: Kingofthedead, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).