Downtown district was created to spruce up Lexington. Has it worked? You can weigh in.
In the past five years, the Downtown Lexington Management District has collected 41,781 pounds of trash, spent 19,680 hours patrolling downtown streets and has cleaned up or painted over 7,891 graffiti sites.
And its backers say it has helped make Lexington’s downtown cleaner, safer and more welcoming.
“The downtown core as clean as its ever been,” said James Frazier, the chairman of the board of the Downtown Lexington Management District. “It’s really just a much more pleasant environment.”
Frazier gave the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council an update at a Tuesday council work session on the district’s accomplishments since it was created in 2015. Frazier encouraged the council to renew the special taxing district for an additional five years. If the district is not renewed, it will sunset June 30.
The council agreed Tuesday to set a public hearing on the proposal to renew the district for 6 p.m. on Feb. 20. The public hearing, which will allow people to speak for or against the renewal, is the first step in the renewal process.
The Lexington council approved the creation of the new district in April 2015 after several years of false starts. A similar effort to create a district failed in 2013.
A management district acts similar to a homeowners association. It collects taxes and spend those taxes in downtown to help keep the area clean, safe and welcoming.
The current district boundaries are from Midland Avenue, High Street, parts of Second Street and Newtown Pike. The district includes 567 parcels.
Properties inside that district pay a tax — 10 cents per $100 of assessed property.
The amount that tax has generated over the past five years has varied, depending on property assessments, which have increased over the years, said Frazier.
“It is typically around $450,000,” Frazier said. In 2019, it was $485,000.
In 2015, organizers exceeded the minimum state requirements to create a management district. It got support from 51 percent of tax-paying property owners who own 62.5 percent of the assessed value. The property owners must represent 55 percent of the total value in the district.
Although not required under the statue, Frazier said the management district collected signatures again in the past few months to gauge whether the district was still a success. It received support form 52 percent downtown property owners or 263 out of 506 owners who represent 67 percent of the value of the property - a slight increase from 2015.
“I think it means people think they are getting bang for the buck,” Frazier said.
If approved for renewal, there will be some minor tweaks. The board will be expanded from 15 to 17 members and the renewal would be for five years.
The district employs ambassadors, who typically wear purple shirts, who give visitors directions, clean up litter and graffiti and spot other problems. It has also partnered with the Fayette County Sheriff’s office to add more patrol hours in downtown since July.
There has been a lot of arrests for public intoxication, as expected, Frazier said. But they have also confiscated hand guns and made other arrests, creating a safer downtown, he said.
In addition, the downtown management district also has worked to beautify downtown with various efforts including LexLights, a new private-public partnership that uses colored lights on downtown buildings, including City Center, to add light and vibrancy to downtown.
They have also awarded $30,000 in property improvement grants that has been matched with $112,442 in private money.
No council member spoke against the renewal during Tuesday’s meeting.
Councilman Jake Gibbs, who represents much of downtown and has served on the management district board, said the ambassadors help a lot of people. They have even called ambulances for people in distress and helped stranded motorists. One ambassador even assisted in saving a life, he said.
“He helped prevent a suicide,” Gibbs said.
