Wilmington Downtown Inc. officials want more time to talk to residents and property owners about a municipal service district proposal for downtown, lessening the likelihood that an MSD will be started  this year.
 
City Council, which in August contracted with WDI to look at the potential for creating a district to provide extra services for downtown improvement, is slated to take up a resolution at its meeting Tuesday about the group’s extension request.
 
The initial plan was for WDI to report back to the council by May 1 with a recommendation on a potential municipal service district (MSD) based on what the group’s board and a 13-member task force of downtown business and property owners have learned.
 
An MSD is a designated portion of a city where a special tax is assessed to pay for extra services and improvements outside of those the city already provides. Those services could be as simple as extra maintenance and trash removal or more complex, such as business recruitment.

There are 56 MSDs in place across North Carolina, WDI officials said. But support is not universal  among downtown owners about starting one in Wilmington -- some are not sold on the idea that the area needs such a tool, while others still have questions about how it would be structured.
 
“While the Task Force working on the evaluation made great headway, they recognized that more time is needed to connect with residents and property owners,” Ed Wolverton, WDI president and CEO, said in an email Friday. “If [the extension is] approved by Council, the next step would be to form affinity groups to gain more input about the exact services to be provided, operating costs and citizen’s oversight.”

According to a letter WDI sent this week to the city, board and task force officials are asking to continue working on the proposal into the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.
 
“Based on their months of evaluation and analysis, the Task Force believes that an MSD could be a critical tool to attract more economic growth; however, they have yet to reach a unanimous consensus about services, operations and timing,” the group’s report stated. “As some property owners and businesses remain opposed to the idea, the Task Force wants to thoroughly and objectively examine all issues and concerns prior to forwarding a more complete recommendation to City Council about deferring or creating an MSD.”
                                                                                               
Officials stated that they and city leaders understood from the beginning that they were looking at an “aggressive timeframe” and added that meeting the May 1 recommendation date also would not leave much time for city staff to meet the legal requirements needed to start an MSD by the beginning of the new budget year in July.
 
In its report to City Council, the group outlined work that already has taken place including sending more than 1,100 property owners information about the districts, soliciting opinions in a survey about what services residents think should be enhanced, holding public meetings and visiting Winston-Salem, Durham and Raleigh to learn more about how MSDs operate in those cities.
 
“With this knowledge, the Task Force began focusing on the notion of providing ‘Safe and Clean’ initiatives similar to those in the sample cities. The group also considered economic development, maintenance, placemaking and marketing services as well. These mirror top concerns identified by constituents in the survey,” the report stated.
 
The task force settled on using the Central Business District zoning district as a way to define the boundaries of a proposed MSD and is considering possible subdistricts within that area “to tailor specific services to different areas of Downtown. While potentially providing lower service levels to portions of Downtown, this may provide a way to minimize costs for some ratepayers,” according to the report.
 
The group, according to its recommendations, is proposing to next:

• organize affinity group meetings for downtown residents, shop owners, office workers and nightlife business owners about potential MSD programs and services
• hold education sessions with national firms about safety and cleanliness service programs
• host community and individual sessions to review potential services, operations and costs
• develop a service plan including job descriptions, scheduling, expenses and revenues associated with an MSD
• and develop a residents oversight committee.