Batavia considers special tax for downtown district

Batavia could implement a special service area downtown in order to fund parking improvements and the Batavia MainStreet group.

The measure would implement a tax on downtown entities, excluding purely residential units, of about 75 cents per $100 of assessed value. It would bring in about $141,000 a year, based on 2005 numbers.

"What we're finding is we're spending a lot of time on fundraising, and it's taking away our time working for MainStreet," said board of directors president Dave Anderson.

The Batavia City Council's government services committee heard the plan on Monday night, but did not vote on it.

"I fully support the SSA," said alderman Forrest Nelson. "It should have been in two years ago."

He added that he would like the city phase in the tax to ease the burden on businesses.

The portion that could be phased in would likely come from funds for a parking and transit fund. That would be used for buying land, maintenance, beautification and construction.

The city needs a comprehensive parking plan now before developers will be interested in redevelopment projects, said City Administrator Bill McGrath.

Under the proposal presented on Monday night, MainStreet would get about $75,000 a year from the tax, and about $66,000 would go into the parking fund.

Batavia MainStreet has a budget of just over $100,000 now.

The plan will likely be heard by the entire council next month. If they want to move forward, they have to host a public hearing on the issue.

Even if approved by the city, the issue could be tabled if a majority of landowners and registered voters in the area sign a petition against it.