City considering Downtown Development District
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(THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) City Manager Eric Garretty (at right) speaks to the Graham City Council during a regular council meeting Thursday, Dec. 22. Shown from left to right are City Councilman Randy Cantin, City Secretary and Finance Director Marci Bueno and Garretty.
The Graham City Council met last week and discussed initiating a project to define a Downtown Development District for the city. The council requested a committee of stakeholders made up of community businesses and local organizations to present more information to the council at a future meeting.
City Manager Eric Garretty said the first thing the city has to determine is what are boundaries of what is considered the downtown area.
“A Downtown Development District is similar to a Planning Development District. Number one, it would allow you to say, this is where our downtown area (...) is now. Just like you did with the planned development district, you’d say, ‘This is what we’d like to see 10, 20 years from now,’ because that’s how you do development. Do we want mostly retail, or a mix of this and retail (...) and office space,” he said. “You would establish a district, set the rules for that district, then determine who was grandfathered in and how the grandfathered worked for the existing ones and then say in the future, ‘Here’s what we would like to see changed.’ The other important point that I would make is by formally designating a Downtown Development District, geographic boundaries with an ordinance, some of these downtown grants (...) are available. That’s one of the first steps, is you have to establish what is your (...) Downtown Business District.”
The city manager said the discussion cannot be one made by the city alone and will require many local stakeholders to have input.
“That’s going to be a discussion between multiple stakeholders,” he said. “Just off the top of my head, Convention and Visitors Bureau, Chamber (of Commerce), Planning and Zoning (Commission), business groups (and) citizens groups. Any downtown organizations, we would probably need to go out and solicit their input for what they would like to see go in any type of ordinance that would govern the future development of what is proposed to be a Downtown Development District.”
For the full story, see the Wednesday, Dec. 28 edition of The Graham Leader.
