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Downtown Fort Wayne seeks decade reauthorization and modest rate increase; council places measure on one‑week hold

5818128 · September 9, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Downtown Fort Wayne presented a proposal to reauthorize and expand the downtown Economic Improvement District for 10 years, adding roughly 40% more area, modest annual assessment increases (2%), and maintaining a 1.5‑mill levy. Council members praised Clean and Green (now Clean and Safe) and economic impact, raised governance and representation

Representatives of Downtown Fort Wayne presented a ten‑year reauthorization and modest expansion of the downtown Economic Improvement District to the Fort Wayne Common Council on Sept. 9.

Preston Wallace, director of marketing for Downtown Fort Wayne, led the presentation and was joined by Frank Howard, chief operating officer, and Bob Walters, interim president and CEO. They described the proposed reauthorization as the organization—s third decade‑long renewal and said the packet before council would create an expanded district to cover roughly a 40–42% increase in area beyond the current 99 downtown blocks.

Wallace said the petition process required under state statute now requires signatures representing at least 60% of property owners and 60% of gross assessed value (GAV); Downtown Fort Wayne reported petition support of about 69% of owners and 69% of GAV. The reauthorization would continue a 1.5‑mill assessment on gross assessed value and include a modest annual assessment increase…

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