The Limestone County Commission has approved a property tax abatement valued at $80 million as part of the incentive package to lure Toyota-Mazda to north Alabama.

Mark Yarbrough, chair of the commission, said the abatements were approved unanimously at a brief meeting Wednesday morning.

Toyota-Mazda has agreed to build a $1.6 billion plant on Huntsville-annexed land in Limestone County and create 4,000 jobs.

The incentives package has now approached $800 million with packages approved by the state of Alabama, the city of Huntsville and Limestone County.

Athens Utilities will work with TVA on providing a substation for electrical needs for the plant, according to city of Athens spokeswoman Holly Hollman. That's valued at about $5.5 million, Hollman said.

The Morgan County Commission is expected to approve an incentive package as well.

Madison County Commission Chair Dale Strong said last week that he will ask the commission to approve $3 million in incentives.

Meanwhile, the project became a little more official on Wednesday afternoon with the signing of the development agreement by Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, Yarbrough, Huntsville city council President Mark Russell and Hundley Batts, the chair of the Industrial Development Board for the city of Huntsville.

"This is a generational project," Battle said. "This project will go for years and years."

Yarbrough said that the property tax abatement is of value of Toyota-Mazda but because there was only minuscule property tax being collected in that area already, it's of no significant loss to Limestone County.

In its incentive package, the city of Huntsville also canceled property taxes for 20 years for Toyota-Mazda - which Huntsville valued at $107 million.

The Limestone abatement is also for 20 years.

"That was an $80 million abatement but it didn't cost us a dime to do it," Yarbrough said. "That's the challenge to explain to people. There will be a lot of people who said they just wrote them a check for $80 million. It's real money to Toyota but it's not to us.

"It's really a no-brainer. There are no losers in there."

Before the signing of the development agreement and after a lengthy round of thank-yous, Battle summed up what the project means not only for Huntsville but for the state.

"The end result is that we ended up with a project with two automotive plants," he said. "The $1.6 billion in investment, which makes it a generational project, for decades this property will provide jobs, will provide an economy, will make this area a productive area and make our city and community a productive community.

"This project is bigger than the city of Huntsville. It is a project for all of north Alabama and, indeed, the state of Alabama."

Yarbrough echoed Battle's sentiments.

"There is a sense of euphoria that's really permeated throughout Limestone County, Athens and the entire area," he said. "Everybody's been inundated by phone calls from across the nation. This shows you the magnitude of what we've got before us."