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Show v N . X City Council Hears Redevelopment Plans for Main Street Area A redevelopment plan under consideration by City Council could rid Main Street of its "toothless crin." institutions to encourage them to invest in the downtown area. A redevelopment plan would help change the reputation of the Main I Street area as a poor investment, he added. Decker and City Attorney Nick Colessides are currently investigating investi-gating the legal requirements and other details involved in setting up the Redevelopment Agency. not yet been set, but Decker said it could include all of the existing commercial zone on Main Street and the proposed Park City Depot project. The district boundaries could be extended as far north as the approved Holiday Inn project, he added. Including ongoing projects in the redevelopment district would be wise, Decker explained, since the agency would then be assured of all the tax revenue created by their construction. Although the City Council coufd set up a completely separate board to serve as the redevelopment agency, Decker recommended that the council appoint themselves as the a-gency. a-gency. The Redevelopment Agency and the other parts of Decker's three step plan were well received by the council Thursday. The initial step in the overall plan is to mount an extensive city-wide clean-up campaign. The city will begin cleaning up all municiple property and notify The finance committee of City Council was presented a three step redevelopment plan last Thursday by RecorderTreasurer Bruce Decker that could breathe new life into the Main Street area. The plan includes the formation of a Main Street Redevelopment District and Agency, which would have the strong powers to encourage development of vacant Main Street lots and use all tax money generated from new construction to finance further improvements. A specific plan for the agency will be drawn up by the council and is expected to face ratification by the voters sometime this summer. According to Decker, the agency could have the power to condemn any property it chooses within the district and buy it at the appraised market value for resale to a willing developer or it could simply encourage development develop-ment by making capitol improvements-such as new sidewalks or streetlights--with the taxes it would receive. property owners in violation of the law that they face penalties unless steps are taken to comply with city standards. Police Chief Garth Wilkinson and Building Inspector Robert Skanter have already begun sending out letters informing owners of deteriorating property that the city crew will clean up their lots at the owner's expense if nothing is done. Mayor Leon Uriarte reported Thursday that he had contacted the county crew and learned that " they planned to landscape and plant trees in the area in front of the Memorial Building. The second step in the overall plan is to inject city funds into Main "Street improvements. Installation of new streetlights is slated to begin soon and sidewalk improvements could be funded by either the city or the new Redevelopment Agency. ' Another possibility is the con-truction con-truction of a landscaped walkway from Main Street to the old Washington. School on a city-owned city-owned lot between the U.S. Ski Team office and the Silver Snowflake. The Redevelopment Agency is the third step in the plan. Decker told the Council that steps two and three of the plan-injecting money into improvements and setting up a Redevelopment District and Agency can "feed on each other" to help revive the downtown area. Once the redevelopment plan gets underway, said Decker, the Council could meet with representatives rep-resentatives of various financial Decker said the agency could also acquire property for such municiple projects as a new city hall, Main Street park, landscaped land-scaped walkways and other landscapings. A key power of the agency, said Decker, would be the ability to incur debt. With this power," the agency could begin making improvements almost immediately immediate-ly after it is formed and pay back the debt later from tax revenue generated from new construction ' within in the Redevelopement District. Funds for the Agency would come from what would, in effect, be a freeze on the amount of taxes collected by the city, county, school board, sewer board, fire district and other tax collecting bodies. During the life of the redevelopment agency, which could be limited to five or ten years, the amount of taxes collected by these bodies within the district remain at the present level. Any additional taxes resulting from an increase in property values cause by new contruction and improvements would be fed back to the Redevelopment Agency. In addition to ratificaiton by the voters, the Agency and its specific plant, to be drawn up by City Council, must also be approved by the affected tax collecting bodies. Tax collection outside the proposed district would not be affected by the plan. Boundaries for the district have |