Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Business Improvement Zone topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee moves Rivertown business improvement zone forward after petition showing majority support
Summary
Jefferson East requested a Rivertown Business Improvement Zone; committee approved sending the request to a formal hearing. Petition signatures from at least 43% of property owners triggered the formal process; proponents estimate roughly $850,000 per year in assessments if the zone is approved.
Committee members voted to send a request to establish a Rivertown Business Improvement Zone (BIZ) to a formal public hearing after proponents said they had met the petition threshold to begin the statutory process.
Joshua Elliott, chief executive officer of Jefferson East, told the committee he and partner organizations have worked since 2018 to build support for a Rivertown BIZ modeled on the Downtown Detroit BIZ. Elliott said 43% of assessable property owners in the proposed zone signed petitions — exceeding the 30% threshold required by state statute to begin the formal process. He asked the committee to hold a public hearing so that ballots can later be mailed to assessable property owners for a formal vote.
Elliott said the proposed zone would affect only commercially assessable properties — retail, office and industrial parcels — and would not apply to single-family homes or residential condominiums. He described the proposed BIZ boundaries roughly as the Detroit River to the south, Rivard to the west, Jefferson to the north near I-375 and Larned to the north across parts of the area, with occasional jogs to include commercial parcels near Mount Elliott, Sheridan and back to the river. A map was included in the meeting packet.
Elliott estimated, using a Downtown-styled assessment calculation, that the zone could generate roughly $850,000 annually to fund clean-and-safe services, marketing and placemaking inside the zone. He said the organizing group had conducted outreach and been encouraged by stakeholder interest; the formal vote later in the process will require a 60% approval threshold by assessed value, Elliott said.
The committee approved sending the item to formal with a recommendation to approve. That action begins the formal public-process steps that lead to the mailed ballot vote of assessable property owners.
