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Monday, March 18, 2024

Wilmington approves downtown service district

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The Wilmington City Council approved a plan to create a special tax district downtown that would bring yellow-shirted ambassadors to help improve the area’s perceptions of safety, security and cleanliness.

Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said when he first joined the council in 2003, the city wasn’t ready for the Municipal Service District, but today it is. With the 6-1 vote, Wilmington will join 56 other North Carolina cities and towns that have municipal service districts, including Charlotte, Asheville, Durham and Winston-Salem.

The public hearing on Tuesday night drew an even mix of supporters, who wanted the added security and cleanliness the district would offer, and opponents, who said the tax needed to operate the system drew too much of a burden on downtown businesses. To fund the district, the city will tax seven cents on every $100 of property value.

The tax is expected to create an annual budget of approximately $275,000, which would be used to employ additional sanitation crews for downtown, as well as ambassadors to help guide tourists and discourage low-level crimes. It would apply to the downtown business district, defined as an area from east of the Cape Fear River to Fifth Avenue, Davis Street at the north and Nun Street to the south. The district would have as many as seven sanitation and ambassador employees working at any time.

While the opinions varied, most supporters and members of the council said the service district was needed to change the perception that downtown wasn’t safe.

Terry Espy, president of the Downtown Business Alliance, said the group hadn’t come to consensus, but said the main focus should be to improve the safety and friendliness of downtown.

“We would like to see the tourist space in this market uplifted a little,” Espy said.

Eric Laut, owner of downtown restaurant Hell’s Kitchen, said he supports the special district because he too often hears that people don’t come downtown because their perception is that it is unsafe.

“Having extra people in the street will be a deterrent for people committing unsafe practices. I don’t expect them to act like police, but they can help the police,” Laut said, also adding that it will help with the marketing of downtown. “Helping people find downtown places is important. It will make downtown more visibly appealing.”

But not all supported the district.

“We now have a clear picture of tax increases from the parks bond,” said Tom Morgan, noting the $30 million bond voters approved last week. “It’s too much of an increase in too short of a time. It’s unaffordable and unacceptable.”

Councilman Paul Lawler, the lone dissenting vote, proposed setting a three-year term on the district, requiring the city council to take action to keep it going. Some council members questioned if the private contractors that would operate the district would commit, knowing that there was a sunset date.

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