Last week, members of the CID steering committee voted to push the project forward after a few delays that have pushed the deadline for completion back several months.
The program would add a small additional sales tax to businesses’ retail sales along Truman Road to help further develop the area and add several safety programs to abate crime along the busy corridor. Officials say the steering committee expects the new program to generate $75,000 in revenue annually, and the TRCA would receive the bulk of the money next January.
The funding would be used for new security and maintenance personnel for the corridor, along with a state-of-the-art crime prevention camera system, said association president David Biersmith.
Similar tax programs have been used in the past to help downtown development. In the River Market, businesses use a special tax district to pay for a crew of street sweepers who pick up trash around the market each morning.
The funding would also be used to finance ongoing residential redevelopment projects in the corridor, like Truman Road’s New Dawn Home Ownership Program.
Don’t start looking for the improvements yet since City Council won’t see the proposal until later this month.
