Ex-mayor has plans for city

David Anderson presents ideas for further downtown improvement

Former Willoughby Mayor David Anderson recently spoke before City Council to present two ideas for further improving the city’s downtown.

One goal of the improvement is to create a downtown organization focused solely on growing the area. He referenced similar downtown areas in Northeast Ohio, including Chardon, Painesville and Medina.

“In most of these other downtowns, they — today — have an organization that is organized, that is funded and that concentrates and focuses solely on the downtown and the viability and the sustainability of downtown,” Anderson said. “Willoughby doesn’t have that right now.”

Anderson said the difference was that organizations like the Downtown Willoughby Bar and Restaurant Association are not primarily focused on downtown itself. He also said that the Heart of Willoughby is focused heavily on downtown, but that it lacks stakeholders.

He presented two models for downtown improvement. One of them was a Main Street America program, of which Painesville is a member.

“Mayor (Robert) Fiala asked if I would get involved with the (Downtown Willoughby Organization) and see if we couldn’t organize something into one group downtown, with a focus on downtown,” Anderson continued.

He presented two models for downtown improvement. One of them was a Main Street America program, of which Painesville is a member.

“In order to participate, to be certified a ‘Main Street city,’ you’ve got to basically follow all of their guidelines,” Anderson said, adding that one of the guidelines is “that in the funding for a ‘Main Street city’, onethird of the budget comes from the city.”

The other two-thirds are divided equally between paid memberships and fundraising activities.

“If I was pitching a Main Street program to you tonight, I’d be here asking you to donate $30,000 a year and hope that the other two things — the memberships and the fundraising — come across,” Anderson told City Council. “And that’d be a very uncomfortable position for me.”

As a result, Anderson said that he looked closely at a second model for downtown, which involves a city Special Improvement District, or SID.

In this model, Anderson said “60 percent of the property owners out there, by frontage, agree to assess themselves additional taxes. Then those taxes are collected by the county, transferred to the city, as I understand, and then transferred to the SID board.”

He referenced Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood, Coventry and Cleveland Heights as examples.

Fiala added that, by funding around two-thirds of the SID’s costs, property owners would directly receive the benefits of the SID.

“In a SID, cities have the option of participating or not participating in this,”

Anderson said. “And again, for this to be successful, it’s going to need city participation.”

He added that if the city took the frontage of its owned property, as other property owners would do in a SID, it would generate a little over $31,000 per year.

Another potential source of funding, Anderson said, is the city’s transient tax which is charged to people

staying in hotels within the city.

“Transient tax dollars are supposed to be earmarked towards travel and tourism,” Anderson said. “I talked with Diane (Bosley, finance director,) here last week — the transient tax in Willoughby is about $226,000 a year. What I’m asking you to do is earmark just over $31,000 of that for five years. Because this is a

five-year commitment to go to the SID.”

Although an unofficial vote, five of six council members agreed to support the SID. Anderson said that letters will be sent out to certain property owners on June 6, one of the initial steps for creating a potential SID.

Eventually, the decision could be placed before council as official legislation.