Money for center city closer to reality

by Karen E. Culp

SBJ Staff

A Community Improvement District in center city Springfield is getting closer to becoming a reality following a series of meetings. Consultant Brad Segal was in Springfield the week of March 22 to meet with property owners and other interested parties about the formation of a CID. Segal has been retained to develop and implement the CID plan for Springfield.

Missouri enacted legislation enabling political subdivisions of the state to develop the self-taxing districts during the 1998 session. It was the 47th state to do so, and Springfield is the second city in Missouri to take advantage of the law; St. Louis was the first, Segal said.

Springfield now has a Special Business District, which is also a self-taxing district, and takes in about $15,000 per year, which is used to maintain public parking downtown. The Special Business District is limited by city ordinance to maintaining public parking. The CID, once it is established, is to replace the SBD.

The CID would encompass a larger area than the current district does. Segal proposed during workshops with property owners that the district be bordered roughly by Main, National, Water and Elm, and take in about 300 property owners. The boundaries are not exact and may change as the process moves forward, Segal said.

He is working on a proposal for the district that he will bring back to present in April, along with a proposed assessment rate. The new district could contain two or three different zones with different levels of assessment and will probably raise $200,000 to $300,000 each year, rather than the $15,000 a year the SBD now raises, Segal said.

Segal said he suggested that the Urban Districts Alliance be contacted to be the administrator for the district, which would also have its own advisory board.

Though the assessment rate has not yet been established, Segal said it could be based on a combination of a property's assessed value and its front footage.

Segal has proposed the district have three tiers, all with different levels of assessment and, therefore, different levels of service.

Once a proposed plan is established, the property owners in the CID will need to begin a petition process. The petition is the means by which the property owners approve the district. Segal said that process should begin in April.

Segal will be back in Springfield April 14 to present the business plan and budget proposal for the district. During his most recent visit, he met with area property owners and took in their concerns about the center city area. Parking and cleanliness issues topped the list.

Segal said the response to the forums held March 22 and March 23 was very good. He estimated that 45 people attended the meetings.

"They were nearly all property owners. That gives us the pulse of the community down here," Segal said.

He added that he was impressed with Springfield's progress in the center city area.

"Springfield has shown a significant demand for an urban lifestyle center, and that's what seems to be developing downtown," Segal said.

Though the new district will probably increase property taxes for downtown property owners, Jim Morris, who owns several properties in the area, said the benefit would be worth it.

"Nobody wants higher taxes, but you have to use common sense when you're looking at these things. The problem comes when our higher taxes are used in the wrong place, but this is something that's going to make downtown better, and if it's going to make downtown progress and grow, then I feel like we have to be for it," Morris said.

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