Explanation
BACKGROUND: This legislation authorizes the appropriation and expenditure of up to $1,000,000.00 and the Director of Development to enter into a contract with the Discovery Special Improvement District of Columbus, Inc. in an amount up to $1,000,000.00.
In 2003, 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 reauthorized in 2010 and again in 2015. The property owners initiated a one-petition process to reauthorize the SID in which at least 60% of the property owners within the District signed that they are interested in reauthorizing the SID and approving the Articles of Incorporation. This petition was accepted and approved by Columbus City Council by Ordinance 0639-2015, passed March 23, 2015.
Another action required by the Ohio Revised Code is the approval of the Plan for Improvements and Services and the inclusion of City owned property in said plan. This legislation was approved by Columbus City Council by Resolution No. 0060X-2015, passed March 23, 2015.
The third piece of legislation was to declare the necessity to implement the Plan of Services adopted by the Discovery Special Improvement District of Columbus, Inc., and to levy a special assessment for the services. This legislation was approved by Columbus City Council by Resolution No. 0097-2015, passed April 27, 2015.
A final piece of legislation, providing for the levy of assessment to property owners, was approved by City Council by Ordinance No. 1893-2015, passed July 27, 2015. Each assessment is to be returned to the SID for operational requirements as set forth in the District Plan.
This legislat...
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