ROCHESTER — A downtown property owner is asking to be released from Rochester’s Downtown Special Service District as an annual increase in related charges is up for approval.
Rick Mattson of RJMJ Properties LLC asked the Rochester City Council earlier this month to remove his building at 620 First Ave. SW from the 44-block district.
“I am objecting to the fact that neither the property or its use is benefitted by the proposed special service,” he wrote in an email to the city. “The business that currently operates out of the 620 property is NAPA Auto Parts, which is primarily a wholesale distributor, i.e., parts delivery to professional mechanical repair facilities, with a very small retail presence.”
The request was made as the
council approved renewing the district for the next 10 years
.
Following up on the renewal, the council will be asked Monday to approve a 4% service charge increase, raising the total collected from property owners in the district from a combined $379,273 to $394,256, with individual assessments based on each property’s tax capacity.
Contributed by the city of Rochester
The funds raised through the service charge account for approximately a third of the Rochester Downtown Alliance’s annual budget, which helps the organization support various events and marketing efforts.
Mattson said his building, which sits in the southern portion of the district, doesn’t benefit from the activities supported by the RDA.
“Out of all the people that we get downtown, we just happen to be one of the (businesses) that don’t benefit from this,” he told the City Council during an Oct. 7 public hearing.
Rochester Strategic Initiatives Director Josh Johnsen, who serves as the city’s representative on the RDA board, said the council needs to take a long view when determining whether to remove a property from the district since uses can change.
“There is going to be perpetual change,” he said, pointing that the area across the street from Mattson’s building will soon house a new apartment complex and Soldiers Field Memorial Park has seen renovations.
“The downtown area where the parcel is located is undergoing transformation, particularly with the University of Minnesota Campus Planning set to drive further development,” he added in a report to the council.
The district includes a mix of contributing and exempt sites, with all commercial and industrial properties being charged for services, including those that house vacant buildings and sites where buildings have been demolished. Multi-family residential properties are exempt.
While the district map is updated annually to reflect changes in property designations, the renewal period is the only opportunity for a property owner to petition for removal from the district.
In 2015, during the last district renewal process, Paul Myhrom, owner of the former Honest Bike Shop and the building that housed the business at 44 Fourth St SE, successfully petitioned to have his Second Street Southeast property removed from the district. It was approved with a 4-3 council vote.
Johnsen said Mattson’s request is different when compared to the 2015 decision. The Fourth Street address sat along the edge of the district and the boundary line was adjusted to exclude it.
The building Mattson wants removed from the district sits north of a contributing building and is surrounded by other portions of the district, meaning removal would cut out a single hole in the defined district.
Mayor Kim Norton said she worries about what will happen in the future.
“If NAPA Auto Parts moves out tomorrow and somebody else moves in that does benefit from it, then we’ve given a business an out,” she said.
During the Oct. 7 meeting, council members decided to delay a decision on the request, taking advantage of the 30-day period to respond.
If the council decides to keep the property in the district, Mattson will have 30 days to file an appeal with the district court.
In the meantime, property owners remaining in the district, as well as others, will have the opportunity to comment on the proposed service charge increase during the council’s meeting at 6 p.m. Monday in council chambers of the city-county Government Center.
The proposed increase is the minimum authorized under the district’s guidelines, which calls for an annual increase ranging from 4% to 8%.
Meetings scheduled to be held during the week of Oct. 21 include:
Rochester
• City Council, 6 p.m. Monday in council chambers of the city-county Government Center, 151 Fourth St. SE. The meeting will livestream at
www.rochestermn.gov/meetings/council-meetings
and be available on Spectrum cable channel 180 or 188.
• Heritage Preservation Commission, 5 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers of the Government Center.
• Citizens Advisory on Transit, 4:30 p.m. Thursday in room 104 of City Hall.
Olmsted County
• Rochester-Olmsted Council of Governments, noon Wednesday in conference room A at 2122 Campus Drive SE in Rochester.
• Soil and Water Conservation District Board, 8:10 a.m. Thursday in conference room A at 2122 Campus Drive SE.
Rochester Public Schools
• School Board special session on field trip fees, 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the boardroom of the Edison Building, 615 Seventh St. SW.
• School Board, following special session Tuesday in the boardroom of the Edison Building.
