Council approves downtown improvement district

Despite being pronounced legally dead by one center city resident and business owner, the Community Improvement District lived to see a 7-1 approving vote from the City Council Sept. 7.

Mayor Lee Gannaway abstained and Councilman Bob Vanaman voted against the CID bill.

Dudley Martin, who practices law and lives on Walnut Street, inside the proposed CID, had seven points to prove that the CID was "legally dead," but made only two or three of those before his allotted five minutes before council was up. Martin was among the 16 center city property owners who spoke in opposition to the self-taxing district, up for a vote by council after being tabled in June.

"It is up to the majority to make a decision like this, and right now the majority is against," Martin said. He further stated that he counted 105 property owners against the proposed district and 99 in favor.

Allen Casey was among the nine center city property owners speaking in favor of the district. Casey, who owns the Sterling Hotel, called the CID movement a "grass roots effort."

"The bottom line is, how can we make downtown a better place, and this is a way to do that, period," Casey said.

Also among the proposal's proponents were representatives for Davis Properties, including Warren Davis and Ron Sheppard, who both spoke in favor of council's passing the CID.

"When they brought this cost to me of $22,000 additional tax dollars a year, I about blew up, but it's not a tax, it's an investment we're making in downtown," Davis said.

Other downtowners expressed a change of heart regarding the proposal. Nick Sibley, who owns property at 412 and 416 S. Campbell, said he signed a petition to create the district, but after review, decided he was not in favor of a self-taxing district for downtown.

"Downtown has come a long way without the CID. If this passes, the CID will take credit for every improvement that comes about," Sibley said.

The district will not form until July of 2000, rather than January 2000 as originally planned. Council approval was needed in June in order for the district to form at the beginning of 2000.

As it now stands, collection of the tax will not begin until January 2001, but the district will operate on the city's fiscal year, and the city has agreed to allocate the district's budget in July 2000, six months before tax collection begins, said Mary Lilly Smith, economic development coordinator for the city.

The self-taxing district has a proposed budget of approximately $211,000 to be used for maintenance, parking, clean-up and other improvements in its two zones. Each zone will have a different level of taxation. Zone 1 would be taxed at $7.38 per foot of lot frontage and $0.747 per $100 of assessed value. Zone 2 would have the same taxation on assessed value, but its tax per foot of lot frontage would be $1.05.

The CID steering committee will next bring a slate of candidates for a board of directors to council for its approval, Smith said. Those opposing the district will look to organize, also, Martin said.

One option the naysayers may have is that of a taxpayers' suit, Martin said.

"I'm going to let my neighbors consider the lawsuit. This is an instance where we were denied due process of law," Martin said. He added that there were "seven errors and omissions" in the CID's development, citing errors in notice and publication of the public hearing on the council bill.

Gannaway was the only council member to abstain from voting because of "clients on both sides of the issue," he said. Other council members have interests downtown, but voted anyway, as was allowed, according to city attorney Howard Wright. Tom Carlson owns property downtown and has his business offices there, but he did not abstain, saying he would not bow out of a tough issue.

"The way to deal with issues is not to table them. ...I don't think the people elected me to abstain from voting on tough issues," Carlson said.

Carlson further stated that the majority of property owners showed their support for the CID by signing a petition to approve it. Some of those signers were retracting their decision at the council meeting.

"I don't know if you can say 'Oh, if I'd only known,' after the fact. When you start that, you call into question the integrity of the process. What's the point of having a vote if people are going to vote one way and then publicly change their minds?" Carlson said.

Council also held several public hearings during its five-plus hour meeting, one on a golf course and apartment development near the I-44 and Highway 65 intersection that drew considerable comment. [[In-content Ad]]