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The South Bend Redevelopment Authority <br />August 29, 2006 Meeting Minutes <br />assessment and funding of the program. Ms. Laurent said only businesses and not- <br />for-profit organizations are assessed, not residential properties. Ms. Pfotenhauer <br />asked if they were getting a positive response from the businesses, and Ms. <br />Laurent said they were. Shannon Schmidt, from Downtown South Bend, said they <br />are getting a lot of positive feedback from businesses on what has been done in <br />the downtown. Ms. Pfotenhauer asked if this would be a special taxing district and <br />Ms. Laurent said it will be a special assessment district. Ms. Laurent asked Tim <br />Williams, who is our property manager for City-owned properties, to do a step-by- <br />step look at all our properties. <br />Mr. Alvarez asked if the information shown about Redevelopment Authority <br />properties is the amount estimated that would be coming in fees, and Ms. Laurent <br />said that would be just the amount from the Authority, but that there would be <br />much more from businesses, as well. Ms. Laurent said the City will continue to <br />fund all the administrative costs of DTSB, as we do now, so that the assessment <br />amounts can go directly toward the visible improvements. Mr. Alvarez asked if <br />only 51% of property owners agreed to the assessment then the other 49% would <br />benefit without any contribution. Ms. Schmidt said they are working hard to <br />locate all business owners, and are finding great difficulty in locating those who <br />live somewhere else. Mr. Alvarez said he thought there would be a lot of property <br />owners who would not be interested in participating in this, and Ms. Schmidt said <br />they have gotten some who said no. Ms. Pfotenhauer said this would not be a tax <br />assessment district, then, and Ms. Laurent said it is. The basic budget is $500,000. <br />which is divided up. Ms. Schmidt said as they looked at the area and what the <br />funds were to do and tried to come up with a reasonable budget. They have looked <br />at other cities and what they are doing. They took the total assessed value for the <br />area and compared the two and came up with a multiplier, which is .0017 so that <br />if you hit a maximum or a minimum, which is built into the program, your bid fee <br />is exactly .0017 of your assessed value. People can then know their bid fee very <br />easily. Ms. Laurent said the small business owners end up paying a very small <br />amount, which may be harder for them than the big property owners who can <br />easily write a big check. They have taken special care to talk to the small business <br />owners so they don't feel like they are carrying the burden. The large business <br />owners, who are taking the large portion of it, are buying into the program. <br />Mr. Alvarez asked if the fee would go down next year, and Ms. Schmidt said as <br />the assessed value grows, the multiplier will stay the same so the budget would <br />grow to accommodate the increased assessed value. If it were to decrease it would <br />probably indicate that they aren't doing the right things. Mr. Alvarez asked about <br />the $110,000. capital budget and wondered if that was aone-time or annual <br />budget, and Ms. Laurent said there will always be projects of improvement that <br />are needed each year. Ms. Schmidt said they have made significant landscaping <br />and on-street service for maintenance and cleanliness. They started on Michigan <br />2 <br />H:\W PDATAW UTHORTY\082906. M IN.DOC <br />