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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-22-11 Downtown Tax Increment Finance District (TIF) Minutes Downtown Tax Increment Finance Board Meeting Minutes March 22, 2011 Attending: Bobby Bear, Paul Burns, Bob Lashaway, Bill Stoddart, Chris Naumann Absent: Bob Hietala, Vonda Laird Public Comments None Disclosures None Minutes ACTION: Bill Stoddart motioned to accept the minutes from February Bob Lashaway seconded the motion. All voted in favor. Financial Report Chris presented the financial report. The only new activity was a deposit of$1545 for the fabrication of 10 new sidewalk bike racks. There were no questions from the board. Special Presentation "Tax Value of Downtown Development" by Randy Carpenter of the Sonoran Institute Randy discussed the concept of evaluating tax revenue generation on a per acre basis. For instance the taxes paid per acre for the Baxter is $14 million while the Wal-Mart is comparatively $200,000 per acre. This analysis looks at the value of dense infill versus green-field sprawl. Further developing downtown is smart growth. Joe Minicozzi will be presenting the detail of just this kind of analysis in Bozeman the week of April 25th. Program Director's Report None provided Executive Director's Report Downtown Parking Study Update The Downtown Parking Study has been completed. The study is available to the public at http://weblink.bozeman.net/WebLink8/ElectronicFile.aspx?docid=44317&&dbid=0 and will also be available soon at the downtown website. I have provided a copy of the executive summary as a concise overview of the study findings. Relocation of Downtown Partnership Office On Monday, March 21St the Partnership Management Committee unanimously approved relocating the Downtown Partnership Office to the third floor of the Baltimore Building at 222 East Main Street. The move will save the Partnership $6,700 annually in rent. The new office will comfortably accommodate us, our bookkeeper, MSU interns and includes a dedicated meeting space large enough to hold all of our board meetings. We will be partnering with Robyn Erlenbush and ERA Landmark to co-brand and enhance their current visitor's center at 8 East Main. We anticipate the move will take place the week of April 18tH Technical Assistance Program Update As you can see from the chart below, I have awarded 13 Planning Grants and 4 Facade Grant totaling $104,400 of the $125,000 budget, leaving a remainder of$20,600. Three additional Planning Grants would equal $21,600. Downtown Technical Assistance Program Project Name Project Address Applicant Professional Grant Type Gallatin Building 44 East Main Street Community Food Co-op Intrinsik Planning Downtowner Building 31-37 South Willson Downtowner Group LLC Focus Planning Odd Fellows Building 221-223 East Main City Center Commerce ThinkTank Planning The Willson Hotel Armory E. Mendenhall The Catellus Group LLC Slade Beal Planning Cateye Cafe Building 23 North Tracy Ave Christine & Kevin Huyser Intrinsik Planning Old City Hall Fagade 411 East Main Steve Kleimer CTA Facade Osborn Block 229-233 East Main Chris Pope Intrinsik Planning Bon Ton Building 42 West Main Mike Basile Focus Planning St Paul Rail Building 608 East Main Empire Building Materials ThinkTank Planning South Wallace Site 218 South Wallace Shannon Roberts Intrinsik Planning Bzn Cr Family Health 316 East Babcock Sarah Bronsky ThinkTank Planning Bon Ton Fagade 42 West Main Mike Basile Focus Facade Downtowner Facade 31-37 South Willson Mike Grant Focus Facade Klare Building Fagade 234 East Babcock Morris Klare ThinkTank Facade Bozeman Armory 24 West Mendenhall Thomas Nygard Bechtle Planning East Willson School 404 West Main BSD7 Comma Q Planning Rialto Theater 8 West Main SRO Live Cikan Planning Discussion and Decision Items Downtown Parking Study Update Chris reviewed the Executive Summary of the finalized Downtown Parking Study. In particular, Chris explained the methodology used to calculate the current and future demand model. Chris said it was important to remember that the demand calculation assumed a simultaneous peak of each parking use (daytime and evening), which of course never actually happens. Therefore the surplus figures are low and the deficit numbers are high. The board discussed that the study to be very thorough and should serve the Parking Commission well. Downtown Housing and Hotel Incentive Programs Chris announced that the Housing Incentive Program was ready to be announced to the public. He indicated that all the edits requested by the board and Chris Saunders of the Planning Department had been incorporated into the final document. Bobby asked Chris how he planned to distribute the program documents. Chris replied that he would e-mail the program documents to the following professional groups: architects, engineers, and commercial relators. Regarding the Hotel Incentive Program, Chris said he was working on the language but it was proving more complicated than the housing program. Chris said he inquired with other downtowns, including posting a discussion topic on a Linkedln downtown group, about incentivizing hotels. He said thus far the only responses have been about various tax breaks. Chris mentioned that he requested the Planning Department calculate the impact fees of a theoretical 105,000 square foot hotel with corresponding restaurant and bar. Chris Saunders estimated the fees would be around $400,000. The board asked if there was any mechanism to lessen that burden. Chris replied that he did not think the City had the ability to alter the impact fees. Bob Lashaway said he still thinks it will be important to specifically define the parameters in terms of quantifying "significant new hotel room inventory". The board discussed that while an 80 to 100 room hotel would be ideal many boutique hotels have as few as 30 rooms. Chris said he would continue to fine tune the program and bring it back to the board for further discussion. Downtown Plywood Issue Chris presented the board with a letter on behalf of the TIF board requesting the owner of the Wards Building at 201 East Main to replace all the windows currently covered by plywood. On the one hand, the board agreed that not replacing the windows for two years following the explosion was unacceptable. On the other hand the board acknowledged that since the owner did not accept the TIFs offer to replace the window free of charge a year ago they doubt that a strongly worded letter would persuade him. Nonetheless, the board agreed to sign the letter. In the interest of time, the agenda item regarding the Linx Transportation Cooperative was tabled to be discussed at a future meeting. With no further new or old business to discuss, Bobby adjourned the meeting.