City Commission moves toward creation of DID expansion taskforce

Downtown and Rosemary District leaders who are championing the expansion of the Downtown Improvement District got a preliminary endorsement from the City Commission this afternoon.

Recently, the DID decided to act on its longstanding deliberations regarding expansion, eying the Rosemary District as a segment of the city interested in joining the self-taxing district. Before officially gauging the interest of property owners in the north-of-Fruitville neighborhood, though, DID leaders wanted to make sure the city was supportive of its efforts.

Advocates for the expansion saw a good match: The DID, short on cash following a 2011 streetscape improvement project, would be able to undertake more significant endeavors. For the Rosemary District, the expansion would be an opportunity to improve blighted portions of an area long targeted for revitalization.

The commission seemed to be on the same page, unanimously directing staff to draft a resolution approving the creation of a DID expansion taskforce. According to DID Operations Manager John Moran and former City Commissioner Ken Shelin, the taskforce would attempt to reproduce the efforts of the group that led to the founding of the DID.

By surveying property owners, the taskforce would seek to establish that representatives for at least 67% of the property in the Rosemary District supported incorporation into the DID. Although the original efforts to establish the DID took a year, Shelin was optimistic that this process might take just six months.

Vice Mayor Suzanne Atwell agreed that enthusiasm seemed to exist for kickstarting the redevelopment of the Rosemary District, and hoped the expansion of the DID might help address longstanding issues for the neighborhood.

“It’s all meeting some of the similar goals we've been talking about for years in that neck of woods,” Atwell said. “This could be the piece de resistance in this whole area.”