By KELSEY AINSWORTH
July 18, 2012

Community Improvement Districts (CID) greatly influence the Historic Northeast. Last week, Kansas City Missouri City Councilman Ed Ford proposed a new resolution that establishes concrete policies for approval of any new CIDs.

The new proposal stated seven key sections that could, if approved, greatly alter the process of approval for CIDs, and negatively impact the existing Independence Avenue CID which is still in the process of gaining approval signatures.

“This is the first step in the process of deciding whether or not we should have a CID policy and what that policy should be,” Ford said at the City Council Planning and Zoning Committee meeting held June 11.

The first section states that new CIDs will not be approved if they overlap with pre-existing CIDs.

It will also be used to regulate single and multiple property owner CIDs. Single property owner CIDs can be approved if 2/3 of the planned improvements to the district are in the public right-of-way.

Additionally, that provision would put a five-year lifetime on their CID. The existence of the CID may be longer if the single owner meets some pre-determined requirements.

Multiple property-owned CIDs would also have requirements in order to be approved in this proposal. Multiple property-owned CIDs, according to the provision, could not exist any longer than 15 years unless they met specific requirements. The “sunset” requirement is of great concern to the Northeast Chamber of Commerce-organizers of the Independence Avenue CID.

“We spend a lot of time planning in this city,” said Bobbi Baker-Hughes, Northeast Chamber of Commerce president. “If we are forced to sunset, we are unable to plan. We do not plan for the past; we build for the tomorrows.”

The next section of the resolution states that the city manager cannot execute any petition wanting to establish a CID and that the city will make annual financial contributions and provide public service to any CID formed within the city limits.

The city will pay for these services by budgeting them into the annual city budget.

The Planning and Zoning Committee set the resolution aside to be looked at a future date in order to seek additional community input before any further action taken.

For more information on the resolution please visit http://cityclerk.kcmo.org/liveweb/common/ and search for resolution “120605.”