Highland Park officials and businesses aren’t messing around downtown.
It’s no coincidence the city has launched five shopping-friendly initiatives since summer Mayor Michael Belsky said. The city also has added hundreds of parking spaces in the last two years.
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“It’s absolutely intentional,” Belsky said. “We’re trying to grow the sales tax as a way to keep the burden off the property tax.”
Last summer, downtown businesses held an art fair that put paintings inside stores to attract customers, and the city sued to acquire a large vacant property under eminent domain because the owner allegedly had not tried hard enough to find a new tenant.
The city has cleaned up the area, putting in planters.
“The intent behind that is just to make it more inviting,” Belsky said.
“We end up exporting the tax burden because we get people coming in from other parts of the region.”
Meanwhile, the city is trying to draft an ordinance to toughen parking restrictions to keep store employees from taking up prime non-metered spaces.
“We’re making a statement that prime parking is for customers,” Belsky said.