With TIF Vote Delayed Again, DDA Focuses on Immediate Future of Downtown

Traverse City Downtown Development Authority (DDA) board members voted Friday for the second time in as many months to delay approving a new tax increment financing (TIF) plan – this time putting off a decision until August. Those who supported the delay in a 9-3 vote said there are too many outstanding factors to be resolved in the coming months to act now, from hiring a new CEO to seeing if parking services are going to move over to the city. Regardless of what happens with TIF in the long run, board members noted there are still numerous downtown projects that require focus this coming year – from approving a new budget to relocating the farmers market for part of this summer to hosting several major events.

Though Mayor Amy Shamroe and board members Hillary Ashcroft and Shelley Spencer were opposed, the majority of the DDA board supported a motion to table a vote on the new Moving Downtown Forward TIF plan until August. Chair Gabe Schneider said it was “only fair” to wait until a new DDA CEO is hired to give that person time to weigh in on the plan, which would replace the TIF 97 plan expiring in 2027. Parking is also a “significant” portion of Moving Downtown Forward, Schneider pointed out. With active talks underway to move parking services from the DDA over to the city, Schneider said that conversation needs to be concluded before finalizing the TIF plan.

Schneider and others also expressed concern that Moving Downtown Forward could be subject to a public referendum that would put it on the November ballot at the same time as another ballot proposal requiring a public vote on extending, approving, or modifying any TIF plan in the city. Raymond Minervini of The Minervini Group – the development group behind The Village at Grand Traverse Commons – said Friday that the ballot proposal will “certainly kill TIF as a viable tool” in Traverse City and harm the community’s “ability to seize opportunities for cleanup and improvements long into the future.” Schneider and other board members agreed and didn’t want to risk citizens confusing the two TIF proposals on the ballot or potentially being encouraged to vote ‘no’ on one and ‘yes’ on another. A delay on approving Moving Downtown Forward until late summer would put the plan on a later ballot – likely fall 2025 – should it be subject to a referendum.

“I think we all agree how important TIF is and moving forward with it is hugely important,” developer John Socks said in public comment. “Strategically if the best thing to is not confuse everybody, then I think it is the best thing to put it off.” Socks said a delay would also the DDA allow to revisit conversations about a third parking deck and decide if the board actually wants to eliminate that from the plan, as was decided recently due to perceived lack of public support. Socks and other business owners said adequate parking is an important need downtown, while Vice Chair Scott Hardy said a new deck was a crucial piece to Moving Downtown Forward since many projects in the plan – like redeveloping the riverfront and farmers market – require eliminating downtown parking spaces.

Even if Moving Downtown Forward ultimately fails down the road – either from lack of DDA board or city commission support or a referendum that’s rejected at the polls – there are still three years left in TIF 97 and major projects to complete before its expiration, board members said. TIF 97 is expected to bring in more than $4 million in the DDA’s 2024-25 budget. The board voted Friday to set a public hearing on that budget for May 17. City commissioners – who have final say over that budget and all other major DDA contracts and financial decisions – will hold a public hearing on city budgets May 20 and vote to approve them on June 3, according to a timeline from DDA Interim CEO Harry Burkholder.

The DDA’s proposed budget includes continued contracts with Traverse Connect for economic development services and the Traverse City Police Department for a downtown community police officer. Funds are also allocated for a visioning process for Rotary Square and for relocating the Sara Hardy Downtown Farmers Market to Rotary Square for part of this summer – a move that will be necessary due to the Grandview Parkway reconstruction slated for July to November. Burkholder said the DDA is working on a formal application process for event organizers to use Rotary Square since so many requests are now coming in to utilize the space. The DDA will need to decide later this year whether to make the two-way conversion of State Street and other downtown streets permanent or extend the pilot for another year. Funds are in the draft budget to make improvements if the street design is made permanent, including signal upgrades and midblock pedestrian crossings similar to Front Street.

The budget also reflects opportunities to upgrade the River’s Edge decking in conjunction with FishPass construction happening at the Union Street Dam, as well as a second phase of TART Trail improvements downtown in the next year. The first phase of TART Trail improvements – proposed to happen in conjunction with the Grandview Parkway/East Front Street project this summer – narrowly failed by a 4-2 vote at the city commission last week (approving the construction contract required five affirmative votes). Shamroe noted one commissioner was absent at that meeting and said the contract would be on the commission’s agenda again on May 6, where she expected it could pass.

Lower Boardman/Ottaway River improvements, downtown maintenance and infrastructure repairs, snowmelt and streetscaping upgrades, a new retail incubator, downtown composting, a West Front Street staircase, Hannah Park improvements, downtown cameras, and marketing and communication contracts are also in the proposed DDA budget, with funds coming from both TIF 97 and Old Town TIF as well as outside sources like grants. The budget also includes funds to pay for engineering support for the DDA, a new position that could either be contracted or internal but would likely be shared with the city. Planning for major long-term capital projects will be difficult until the DDA knows what’s happening with Moving Downtown Forward, Schneider acknowledged, but said in the meantime there’s a “lot of good work we can continue to do in this upcoming year.”

The DDA is also continuing to plan for several major events, according to Director of Events & Engagement Sara Klebba. Those include the Downtown Art Walk on May 3 and three downtown Art Fair events on June 15, June 30, and August 17, with the Downtown Street Sale set to return August 2. Klebba said staff are also working to gather more analytics and feedback from events – such as surveying customers and restaurants after Traverse City Restaurant Week – to gauge what’s working and where improvements can be made. Other efforts underway include launching a “red carpet” campaign to encourage downtown business during the summer road construction and exploring digitizing downtown gift cards, according to Klebba and Burkholder.