How would a historic district in downtown Rochester be funded?
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(ABC 6 News) – The Rochester City Council held a study session Monday night on the financial incentives on making a historic district downtown.
The proposed area would stretch from the north block of 2nd and 4th Streets southwest along Broadway and 1st Avenue.
The city council’s main focus is still on creating more parking availability downtown over the creation of a historic district. However, they are open to more conversations as they try to focus in on funding for businesses that would be apart of the district.
Their highest concern on a historic district is figuring out how the money for this district would be funded and assure the city tax levy isn’t the only source of funds for it.
The Rochester Downtown Alliance has been helping to facilitate conversations between business owners in this proposed district and the city, as well as listening to what the people want with downtown, to reach a compromise on funding this potential historic district.
The Rochester City Council held a study session Monday night on the financial incentives on making a historic district downtown.
“We have to put this in the context of all that we have to do right now, in Rochester to revitalize our downtown,” said Kathleen Harrington, interim director of RDA. “There’s clearly an economic value to this entire community, all of Rochester, of a vital downtown. So where does this historic district creation fit into that and prioritize it with all the other needs that have been raised by the citizens.”
The city council is open to paying for a historic district as long as they can find multiple funding streams for the business in the district with limited impact on the tax levy. They will continue discussions in future sessions.