The Milan News-Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
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DDA district to revert to original boundaries
By Brian Cox, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: April 12, 2007
In an effort to correct past mistakes, Milan City Council Monday night took the first step toward returning the city's downtown development district to its original boundaries.
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The downtown district was more than doubled in early 2006 after more than a year of planning by the Milan Downtown Development Authority. Invoking the Downtown Development Authority Act, plans were for the DDA to collect an estimated $11,000 annually from an additional 1.7 mills levied on property located inside the expanded district.
The move generated some controversy and drew the ire of residents whose property fell inside the new boundaries, which were not contiguous and resembled a butterfly in shape. Some accused the DDA of gerrymandering.
The process also was plagued with missed deadlines and improper notifications, said City Administrator Dan Bishop, who said he saw potential problems with the expanded district when he was first hired in March 2006.
"I saw the odd shape of the new district and it raised a red flag in my mind," said Bishop, who encouraged council to revert the district back to its original footprint.
Last May, City Attorney Bill Beach, who was brought on last year, wrote a memo to council in which he expressed skepticism about the new district meeting legal criteria.
To change the district's boundaries, the city must go through an involved process of notifications and hearings, including publishing notice of a public hearing twice no less than 20 or more than 40 days before the date of the hearing and notifying residents inside the district of the hearing by mail no less than 20 days before the date.
"There are certain ways and steps to amend the boundaries," Beach said. "We didn't do it correctly before. We're trying to do it correctly this time."
"This is a corrective action on our part to comply with the (DDA) Act," said Mayor Owen Diaz.
Milan DDA Director Becca Mangani said the DDA was on board with amending the district boundaries.
"The DDA board is fully prepared to go back to the original boundaries and re-look at the boundaries focusing on downtown," she told council.
But the council was initially not keen on undoing the months of work and cost behind establishing the new district, and explored the option of changing the district boundaries without simply reverting to the old borders.
The city administrator said he was not sure there was sufficient time to hammer out the details of a revised district.
"There is a time issue that we need to be cognizant of," Bishop said, explaining that the district boundaries must be changed by July 1 or the millage would have to be assessed, possibly leaving the city open to lawsuits from property owners.
"We need to fix this before the next budgetary and tax cycle," he said.
The council voted 5-2 to set a public hearing May 7 on amending the downtown district boundaries.
Council members Jim Latham and Martha Churchill opposed the motion.
"I would personally rather not give up on the concept of expanding the DDA district," said Latham, who owns Latham Hardware downtown. "A lot of time and energy went into it."
"I'm just afraid we won't ever expand it then," said Churchill.
Staff Writer Brian Cox can be reached at 429-7380 or bcox@heritage.com.
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