City Commissioners will consider during their Aug. 16 meeting an update to the downtown urban renewal plan and two stormwater projects.
The commission adopted the Downtown Urban Renewal Plan in 2012, after the development and adoption of the Downtown Master Plan, which is a “blueprint for the revitalization and redevelopment of downtown, and recommended the creation of an urban renewal district that utilizes tax increment financing to help public improvements called out within the Downtown Master Plan and the city’s Growth Policy,” according to the staff report.
City staff has proposed the amendments to the plan since the city public works department is working on two storm drainage projects to address flooding in the downtown area.
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State law governing TIF districts allows funding public infrastructure, but when the plan was adopted in 2012, it didn’t address the need for public investment in drainage facilities, water and sewer upgrades, and general upgrades to streets and alleys.
“This was clearly an oversight related to the issues that were points of emphasis during the Downtown Master Plan development process that occurred in 2011,” according to city staff.
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The first project is designed to resolve flooding and ice buildup problems within the alley behind the Celtic Cowboy and Hotel Arvon. This alley section, known as 2nd Avenue Alley, is located between Park Drive and 2nd Street South.
Because there is almost no slope in the alley and buildings on either side block out sunlight, water has a tendency to pond in the alley and then turn to ice in wintertime conditions, according to the staff report. Pedestrians regularly traverse the alley because there is a parking garage on the south side of the alley that hotel guests use.
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The proposed project will install drainage inlets and a conveyance pipe to drain the water more effectively to an existing storm drain system in 2nd Street South.
The public works department has requested $90,000 of downtown tax increment financing funds and wants to bid the project in August and complete it in the fall.
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The second project is a much larger project designed to upgrade the capacity of the storm drainage network downtown. The proposed project area encompasses the streets and avenues bordered by 2nd Avenue North, 2nd Street, 4th Avenue South and 5th Street.
The proposed project would include work from the intersection of 4th Avenue South and 2nd Street South to the east bank of the Missouri River and add storm drain inlets, increasing underground pipe capacity, and better conveying storm water to the Missouri River, according to the staff report.
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The project is expected to take place between 2022 and 2027 and be divided up into four phases.
The total cost of the project is estimated to be $6.3 million, according to staff.
Funding for the project will come from three sources: $3.8 million in state ARPA grant funds and city storm drain funds, and $2.5 million downtown TIF funds.
To reduce the impact to the downtown TIF district’s balance, the request will come in $500,000 increments over the five-year project period.
The current balance in the district is $4.1 million.