Downtown Indianapolis moves closer to new tax for beautification, public safety

James Briggs | IndyStar

More than 1,200 property owners across Downtown Indianapolis are a step closer to paying new taxes that are being pitched as a way to make the city cleaner and safer, especially for visitors.

A City-County Council panel on Monday approved a pair of proposals that would create taxing districts covering Fountain Square, Fletcher Place and Downtown. The economic improvement districts, or EIDs, would pay for maintenance, public safety, marketing and economic development.

Proponents of the EIDs are making a hectic final push to get them passed in the weeks before a new state law adds more hurdles to the process. One proposed EID that covers 91 properties along Virginia Avenue sailed through the council's Metropolitan and Economic Development Committee. A separate Downtown EID covering 1,167 properties also passed through the panel, yet faces a more perilous path.

More: A new Downtown tax is gaining momentum. Here's what it would mean for you.

More: As Anthem invests $20M in Indianapolis, it wants closer parking spaces for executives

More: How a little-known Indianapolis developer got in position to land Amazon's HQ2

Supporters and detractors of the Downtown EID were still arguing Monday night over whether the petition drive has met the legal threshold of gathering support from at least 50 percent of property owners. At issue is how to count signatures in a few complex scenarios, including properties at which one owner expressed support and a co-owner didn't, as well as properties that have changed hands since previous owners signed.

Fred Biesecker, the council's general counsel, said the Downtown EID still needed support from eight more property owners as of Monday. Downtown Indy Inc., an advocacy organization that has led the campaign, has until the June 18 City-County Council meeting to meet that requirement.

The Downtown EID would be paid by both commercial and residential Downtown property owners over a 10-year period. Property owners would pay a total of about $3 million a year.

Downtown Indy wants to use the money to hire 10 to 15 people to remove weeds, sweep streets, power wash, plant trees and perform other general maintenance. The plan also includes $700,000 for homeless outreach, marketing and adding foot and bike patrols for off-duty police officers.

Dennis Dye, a commercial real estate developer and advocate for the EID, said he's seen the need for more public investment during his five years of living Downtown.

"You can demonstrably see the decline in what's happened from a maintenance perspective in the core of the city," Dye said.

The EID would address problems including panhandling, cleanliness and the perception that Indianapolis is unsafe, Dye said.

Lynne Petersen, the president of the Indiana Apartment Association, which has lobbied against the EID, criticized the frantic process leading up to Monday's committee meeting.

"We would have thought these signatures would have been certified by Friday and we'd know one way or the other," Petersen said. "This is troubling right now that we're not sure where any of this is."

The Downtown petition effort has been a moving target. Downtown Indy has been campaigning since last fall and pushed back its deadline, which most recently was May 11.

Jeff Miller, a council Republican whose district includes a portion of Downtown, defended the outreach effort, saying it's "quite remarkable they got to all those people" over nine months.

Miller's district also includes the proposed Virginia Avenue EID, which stretches from Fountain Square to Fletcher Place and would cost property owners a total of $82,096 annually. That money would be spent to beautify the street and attract people to neighborhood businesses.

The Virginia Avenue proposal has the support of 53.9 percent of property owners, accounting for 68.8 percent of the assessed value in the would-be district. The latest EID proposal follows a previous two-year campaign that failed to win support in Fountain Square.

"This one was much tighter and I think people felt they were ready," Miller said.

If EID proponents fail to push the two proposals across the finish line this month, the bar will become much higher in the future.

That's because a state law taking effect July 1 requires petitioners to gather signatures from more than 60 percent of property owners within a four-month period to create an economic improvement district. Neither of the EID proposals under council consideration have met those targets.

"This is probably our last bite at the apple to get IEDs passed," Dye said. "Achieving a 60 percent threshold is probably unrealistic."

Indianapolis has one EID. Woodruff Place created one in 2015 with overwhelming support from the community.

The Metropolitan and Economic Development Committee gave its stamp of approval to the Virginia Avenue EID, but passed the Downtown EID to the council without a recommendation.

Council Vice President Zach Adamson, a Democrat, said Downtown Indy has a lot of work to do before the June 18 council meeting.

"While I support it now, I would like to see us move this proposal without a recommendation in hopes that between now and when the full council meets, they'll be able to nail down the rest of what they need to do," Adamson said.

IndyStar reporter Amy Bartner contributed to this story. Call IndyStar reporter James Briggs at (317) 444-6307. Follow him on Twitter: @JamesEBriggs.