The city has moved forward with plans to create a second special taxing district downtown and to restructure the existing smaller one.
The council scheduled public hearings on the proposal for 7 p.m. Sept. 28 at City Hall.
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“The plan is not asking for that much more money,” said Mayor Fred Norris. “It would come from a larger pool of properties and be redistributed towards different priorities.”
The new special service area, as the taxing districts are called, would include most of the commercial properties bounded by Fifth Street, the Chicago & North Western Railway tracks, Fifth Avenue and Prairie Street.
It would collect about $150,000 annually in property taxes to help fund revitalization and other projects supporting downtown.
“This is meant to be broad so almost any project could come under the banner of downtown revitalization,” said Ald. Sue Klinkhamer, chairman of the council’s Downtown Committee.
The plan will go into effect automatically about 30 days after the public hearing unless 51 percent or more of the property owners and registered voters in the affected district file petitions opposing it.