Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-19-09 Downtown Tax Increment Finance District Minutes Downtown Tax Increment Finance District Board Meeting Minutes 5/19/2009 Attending: Bobby Bear, Vonda Laird, Bob Lashaway, Bill Stoddard Kaaren Jacobson, Chris Naumann Absent: Peter Bertelsen, Thail Davis Chris informed the Board that Bill Stoddart was unanimously appointed to the TIF Board as a non-voting member on May 18, 2009. Minutes ACTION: Bob Lashaway motioned to accept the minutes from January, February, March and April 2009. Vonda Laird seconded the motion All voted in favor Public Comments None Financial Report Chris noted that there was no financial activity in the TIF account since April’s financial report. He indicated that he would go over the year-to-date expenses as part of the budget discussion. Program Director’s Report Upcoming Events: th Friday, May 29 from 5-6:30- Parking Garage Grand Opening/Ribbon Cutting –, ribbon cutting ceremony, free food and refreshments from MacKenzie River Pizza and Leaf and Bean st Sunday, May 31 from 4-5:30- Downtown Healing Celebrations –. Chris to give more details thnd Friday, June 12 6-8pm - Art Walks – First one, then every 2 Friday through September th Friday, June 19 5-6:30pm - DBA Social at the Golden Rule Building ndth Thursday, July 2 - Music on Main –same location as last…every Thursday through August 20 thth Friday, July 17 and 18 9am to 6pm - Crazy Days th Sunday, August 16 9am–3pm – Cruisin’ on Main Car Show on Main Street from Rouse to Willson Other Items: - Membership Drive and Directory re-print in July - Recent website updates with video clips of downtown business owners …visit www.downtownbozeman.org Executive Director’s Report Tax Increment Finance District Board th May 19 2009 Downtown Disaster Update In light of the Montana Legislature’s denial of a disaster clean-up appropriation, the City of Bozeman established a Disaster Clean-up Loan Fund to facilitate timely action at the explosion site. The City Commission approved a $300,000 loan on Monday, May 18, 2009. The money to be loaned will come from the following sources: ? $50,000 from the City General Fund ? $50,000 from a NorthWestern Energy contribution ? $110,000 from the City's Housing Revolving Loan Fund ? $90,000 from the City's Economic Development Revolving Loan Fund The property owners have awarded a bid to an excavation contractor to clean the entire site as on project. The COB has issued a demolition permit contingent on stabilizing the standing buildings directly to the east and west of the site. The start date of the clean-up project has yet to be announced. A Downtown Healing Celebration will be held at the disaster site the afternoon of Sunday, May 31, 2009. The celebration will consist of a community walk originating at several city parks proceeding to Main Street. A Healing Ceremony will be held in front of the explosion site and will be performed by members of the Gallatin Valley Interfaith Association. There has been considerable interest in installing a plywood wall attached to the existing chainlink fence to conceal the disaster site. It has been proposed that local artists then paint the plywood with a mural, perhaps commemorative in design. I have agreed to coordinate COB and property owner approval for the installation of the plywood. After that, members of the community have agreed to arrange for the plywood to be donated and installed for free. Other individuals have expressed interest in orchestrating the mural aspect of the project. Downtown Improvement Plan The LMN consulting team has provided the advisory committee with an outline for the draft Downtown Improvement Plan. The outline was based upon the predetermined plan objectives and the preliminary findings from the stakeholder and public comments gathered by the team. The initial concepts and objectives have been summarized and posted on the Plan page of www.downtownbozeman.org. Members of the LMN team will be in Bozeman June 17-18, 2009 to present the draft plan to the Advisory Committee and City officials. The draft plan will be released to the public following these initial reviews. After several weeks of public review and comments, the team will revise the draft into final form, which will in turn be presented to the Partnership in late July. The plan will then make its way through the City of Bozeman adoption process with the Planning Board and City Commission. Parking Garage Update The Bridger Park Garage Grand Opening will be held at 5:00pm Friday May 29, 2009 at the northwest corner of the facility. The ceremony will include a ribbon cutting and short presentation. Following the ceremony hors‘d oeuvres and beverages will be served during a community social. Currently, Qwest is completing their overdue reconfiguration of the phone lines in the alley. Completion nd of this work is scheduled for May 22. Once Qwest is finished, the dumpsters will be moved from the street to the stalls in the alley and the surface will be paved with asphalt. The garage is now home to just over 100 monthly permit holders. Discussion and Decision Items FY2010 TIF Draft Budget Chris presented the draft budget for fiscal year 2010 to the board. He began by reviewing the year-to-date expenses and revenues. The FY2009 TIF increment figure has yet to be correctly determined. Chris had budgeted $552,891 while Anna Rosenberry had projected over $600,000. The initial figure from MT DOR was $437,000, which Anna has asked to be reviewed. Chris explained that the “Cash Contribution” to the construction of the garage would be closer to $260,000 rather than the expected $230,000 due to higher than expected expenses from Northwestern Energy for the reconfiguration of the electrical lines behind the facility. The original invoices came in over $100,000 higher than estimated. Chris informed the board that Assistant City Manager Chuck Winn negotiated over $70,000 of adjustments to the final invoices. All of the other FY2009 anticipated revenues and expenditures are in keeping with the budgeted figures. Chris then detailed the proposed FY2010 revenues and expenses. He projected a starting cash balance of approximately $232,000 and a 2% increase to the increment, which is very conservative. Chris then presented the idea of a slight increase to the Partnership management fee from $71,500 to $74,000. He explained that in FY2009 he had budgeted the office sub- lease income into the Partnership revenue calculations. Considering the difficulties in consistently leasing that space, he decided that it was not prudent to count on the lease monies as Partnership revenue. Instead, he proposed increasing the management fee for all members while still actively seeking to lease the space. In the event that a lease generates FY2010 profit for the Partnership, the profit would be redistributed to the member organizations at year-end. The board concurred that this was a more reasonable approach considering the unpredictable nature of sublease income. Chris informed the board that the bond payment for the parking garage in FY2010 would be $424,287. Chris proposed $30,000 for streetscape hardware maintenance and purchases. He also asked the board to consider funding a Streetscape Assistance Program with $50,000, which would provide a 15% reimbursement to any property owner that installs historic street lamps as part of a streetscape improvement. This would be consistent with the amount covered by the TIF during the 2002 Main Street Streetscape Project. Chris also introduced the idea of funding a Redevelopment Assistance Grant program with $25,000. This would involve awarding $5000 grants that would compensate a pre-determined group of local planning professionals to assist potential property redevelopers with project feasibility studies. Chris informed the board that the Downtown Billings TIF administered a similar program for years with 85% of the grant projects being constructed. The board indicated that they might like to see the Redevelopment Grant program be more heavily funded than the Streetscape Assistance program. Chris said that he would not object to reallocating the proposed budget amounts for both. Chris recommended that the board determine the exact amounts of funding for the Redevelopment and Streetscape assistance programs at the June board meeting. In the meantime, he would send the board an example of the Streetscape Assistance payout using the Heebs and Tire-Rama site plans. In addition, he would provide them with a draft of the Redevelopment Assistance Program. The board agreed that this information would better allow them to determine the finances of each. With no future or old business to discuss, Bobby adjourned the meeting.