Explanation
BACKGROUND: In 2005 the Discovery District Development Corporation asked Capitol South Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation to initiate an effort to work with Discovery District property owners to create a Special Improvement District (SID) on the east side of downtown. Property owners were surveyed and overwhelmingly were in support of seeing a proposal to create a SID. The SID was created for an initial five-year period, was very successful and was reauthorized in 2010 & 2015 and again in 2020 with City Council’s consent.
In 2020, a one petition process was initiated in which property owners representing at least 60% of the front feet within the District signed that they were interested in reauthorizing the SID and they approved of the Plan for Services delineating the services to be provided by the SID. The petition was accepted and approved by Columbus City Council’s Ordinance No. 0808-2020, passed May 4, 2020. Subsequently, two additional Resolutions were approved by the City Council; 0068X-2020 on May 18, 2020 and 0101X-2020 on June 29, 2020. The final action as required by Chapter 1710 of the Ohio Revised code to reauthorize the SID, Ordinance 1893-2020, was approved by the City Council on September 14, 2020. Each assessment is to be returned to the SID for operational requirements as set forth in the Plan for Services.
This legislation appropriates and approves the expenditure of assessments collected in fiscal year 2023 that are to be returned to the SID. This legislation also allows the Director of Development to enter into a contract with the Discovery Special Improvement District of Columbus, Inc. for disbursement of these funds in 2023.
Emergency designation is requested to prevent any interruption of service as these critical payments are only released from the auditor bi-annually for continued cleaning and safety services, and are the sole source of employee payroll for the districts they serve.
FISCAL IMPACT: Funds for this ...
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