Downtown Special Improvement District Study Released

As part of an ongoing effort to improve the Urbana downtown area, Melanie Kendrick, Community Development Director for the City of Urbana, enlisted the services of a capstone project utilizing students from Wright State University.

In the past, Kendrick has heard concerns from downtown business owners about the general "problems" in the area. One potential solution to the problem is the formation of a Special Improvement District.

Two Master of Public Administration students worked diligently for ten weeks, pounding the pavement to garner input from businesses and visitors to the downtown area, collecting data, and analyzing vacancy rates and market conditions.

The report, titled "Making the Case: Is there a Need for a Downtown Special Improvement District in Urbana, Oh?" was presented to peers and professionals in public adminstration as part of their graduation requirements for the MPA degree. The report is intended to assist in the assessing the feasibility of a SID in the downtown area, using data collected to guage the interest of business owners in the proposed area, as well as address the characteristics best suited to the downtown Urbana area.

The report is broken into two parts: the first section gives a general backgroud of a SID, including definition of the concept and creation of a SID as mandated by state law and a history of SIDs. The second section includes recommendations given to City officials suggesting a conservative initial budget and areas of concern that could be addressed within that budget.

Please take the time to read through the report, the results may surprise you. A second downtown SID meeting is being planned for the near future to discuss the report and to plan for the future.