CIDs could be limited under proposal

Main Street Kansas City

Main Street is one of the areas of Midtown that has a community improvement district.

Current and future Midtown Community Improvement Districts (CIDs) could be impacted by a proposal being considered at city hall. As we reported yesterday, the city manager last week asked the city council to consider establishing new principles for the establishment of CIDs. Midtown currently has several CIDs including two in Westport, one on Main Street and one on 39th Street.  There is a proposal for an Uptown Theater CID pending at city hall, and the Broadway Westport Council is preparing a petition for a district on Broadway. These CIDs provide security, trash cleanup, and other services for their areas.

The City Planning and Development Department has presented a resolution to the city, which City Manager Troy Schulte said could serve as a starting point for discussion of a new set of guiding principles.  The key provisions of the proposal are:

  • New CIDs will not be approved if they overlap any existing CID.
  • New CIDs will generally be established to last for 15 years.  Currently, some CIDs under consideration are being proposed to last forever without having to be renewed. Under this proposal, they would be to re-petition the city after 15 years. The proposal would allow for the council to extend the length of a CID if the owner has a financial note that will not be paid off in fifteen years.
  • Single-owner community improvement districts will not be approved unless at least 2/3rd s of the improvements in the district are to be made in the public right-of-way and their initial length cannot be more than five years. Once again, the council would have the latitude to extend the length if the owner had a note longer than five years.

The city council is scheduled to discuss the proposal July 19 at its business session.

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