Your Town Alabama: Designing Our Future

LOW IMPACT DEVELOPMENT

Low Impact Development or LID is the practice of taking steps during development design to minimize changes to the hydrologic cycle (runoff and infiltration after a storm). LID strategies integrate green space, native landscaping, natural hydrologic functions, and various other techniques to generate less runoff from developed land.  Many innovative site designs and stormwater management practices are grouped together under the heading of LID. Examples of these strategies include open space planning, constructed stormwater wetlands, and filter strips.

LID has many practical and economical benefits for communities looking to improve the quality of their stormwater runoff. According to the EPA report Low Impact Development, A Literature Review, October 2000 "In general LID measures are more cost effective and lower in maintenance than conventional, structural stormwater controls. Not all sites are suitable for LID. Considerations such as soil permeability, depth of water table and slope must be considered, in addition to other factors. Further, the use of LID may not completely replace the need for conventional stormwater controls."

The benefits of LID can be large while the accompanying costs may be lower than expected. Many studies and reports have been completed that show benefits of LID along with reasonable costs.  More information about LID and accompanying case studies can be found at the Alabama Cooperative Extension’s website at http://www.aces.edu/waterquality/nemo/lid.htm.

HISTORIC BUILDING RENOVATIONS NET TAX BREAKS

Owners of historic buildings can apply for financial help with renovations and taxes.  These funds are only available if your building is listed, or eligible for listing, on the National Register of Historic Places (http://nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/AL/state.html) or on a state historic register (http://www.preserveala.org/arprop.pdf).  Once you have established the building’s designation, a number of options are available for federal and state financial assistance for renovations. The Federal Rehabilitation Credit (IRS Form 3468) allows a credit for qualified rehabilitation expenditures made for any qualified rehabilitated commercial building. The credit is 10% of the expenditures for any qualified rehabilitated building other than a certified historic structure and 20% of the expenditures for a certified historic structure. To be a qualified rehabilitated building, the building must meet all four of the following requirements.

1. The building was originally placed in service before 1936 or it is a certified historic structure. A certified historic structure is any building (a) listed in the National Register of Historic Places or (b) located in a registered historic district (as defined in section 47(c)(3)(B)) and certified by the Secretary of the Interior as being of historic significance to the district.
2. The building must be substantially rehabilitated. A building is considered substantially rehabilitated if the qualified rehabilitation expenditures during a self-selected 24-month period that ends with or within your tax year are more than the greater of $5,000 or your adjusted basis in the building and its structural.
3. The building must have been placed in service before the beginning of rehabilitation. This requirement is met if the building was placed in service by any person at any time before the rehabilitation began.
4. For a building other than a certified historic structure (a) at least 75% of the external walls must be retained with 50% or more kept in place as external walls and (b) at least 75% of the existing internal structural framework of the building must be retained in place.

more>>>