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Downtown business owners discuss improvement district

BY DREW TERRY
Northwest Arkansas Times

Owners of property in the Downtown Master Plan area gathered Wednesday during two separate meetings regarding a proposed business improvement district in Fayetteville.

The first session ended with residents concerned about the effects of the district and some property owners asking whether they could withstand any potential financial burden to subsidize a district.

“It’s easier when we go into areas where it’s dirty, it’s unsafe, places are falling apart,” said Steve Gibson, who led the meetings. “This isn’t that way. You’ve got some major issues here that are harder to solve.”

West Lafayette Historic Neighborhood Association members voiced their opposition to being required to pay for potential improvements made to nearby commercial properties.

Gibson told property owners Wednesday he expected the proposed improvement district to encompass less acreage than the Downtown Master Plan zone, which is being used in the preliminary stages of the improvement district study. One option could be to exclude residential areas.

Gibson is president of Urban Place Consulting Group, a firm based in Long Beach, Calif., and hired by Downtown Partners to assist in the process of creating a business improvement district in downtown Fayetteville.

The district would provide services and would be funded by a tax on the property in the boundary. It must be approved by property owners representing two-thirds of the assessed value in the proposed area.

Recent studies by the consultants have determined more than 512 people own 1,029 parcels within the Downtown Master Plan boundary, but 121 proprietors own 73.45 percent of the property.

Gibson and project manager Jessica Whaley plan to work through July on education efforts and consensus building, in addition to creating a database of property owners and assessments.
A development and management plan will be created in August and September, and a steering committee will work toward creating boundaries, potential benefit zones, programs and services, and a budget.

The official proposal will be created once all the information has been gathered. It will show property owners the management plan, involved expenses and the cost applied to each parcel in the boundary.

A petition drive and public hearing could be scheduled by October, with the district possibly being established by December. Denele Campbell left the meeting wondering how much she and other small-scale property owners would be expected to contribute and how much she could afford to pay toward an improvement district. Campbell owns the Old Town Exchange at the intersection of Center Street and Gregg Avenue. The metal structures currently house bands, but she plans to clear the 100-footwide strip and construct Rivendell, a mixed-use, three-level development along the city’s multiuse trail.

Property value and the difficulty of running a small business is a daunting task without being required to fund a business improvement district, Campbell said.

She was concerned rising costs and an unreasonable improvement district expense could hinder local businesses from operating in downtown.

That could reduce the uniqueness of the area, an aspect Gibson listed in the meeting as a vital component for downtown to attract visitors and avoid becoming a generic destination.

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