Tough Call on Mesa Del Sol Financing

UPDATE: Click for later post on how the City Council voted on this issue.
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Tonight the Albuquerque City Council will be discussing Ike Benton's proposal to help fund infrastructure development at Mesa Del Sol by creating a special tax increment development district and funding mechanism. Within the district, developer Forest City Covington would pay back bond proceeds it receives up front for infrastructure with a percentage of the taxes generated by the development for the next 25 years. While that sounds good to many in terms of kick-starting the much-praised Mesa Del Sol planned community, others aren't so sure.

Among those advocating against the proposal is the nonprofit group , which works against sprawl development and for smart growth and sustainable community development. The group's President, Ken Balizer, and Executive Director, Gabriel Nims, wrote a guest column at the Albuquerque Journal explaining their reasoning and claiming that the proposal doesn't meet he criteria required by Albuquerque's Planned Growth Strategy.

This Albuquerque Tribune article lays out some of the issues at play. I can't seem to choose sides on this one as my understanding of finance and taxation is rather simplistic. Anyone out there understand this in more depth? What do you think?