Many Provo firms seek to end alliance

PROVO — More than three dozen downtown Provo property owners hope to persuade the City Council tonight to end the tax that funds the Downtown Business Alliance.

Those property and business owners represent about 27 percent of the property value in the downtown district that has been taxed for six years to fund the alliance.

"That's a pretty large protest in my estimation," City Council Chairman George Stewart said. "Last time it was like 8 percent."

The council will hold a public hearing on the issue tonight at 7:15 in the council chambers, 351 W. Center.

At the end of the hearing, the council is expected to vote whether to renew the Provo Central Business Economic Development District for another three years.

If they vote to renew it, business and property owners in central Provo will pay to fund the Downtown Business Alliance's proposed annual budget of $170,000.

The alliance is meant to be just that — a group of business and property owners who ally themselves and agree to pay for promotional activities and improvements to the area that draw customers and tenants.

Since 2001, when it was first approved by the Provo City Council, the alliance has been compulsory. That year, 8 percent of property owners filed qualified protests.

The district was renewed by the Council in 2004 with protests from 9 percent of owners.

The bill comes to about $8,000 a year for large downtown property owners like those with which Don Blackwelder has worked. Blackwelder was the real estate agent for the owner who sold Provo Town Square three years ago, and he owns part of the Wells Fargo Center with two Nevada partners.

His major complaint is that property taxes in downtown Provo are already so high that an additional compulsory assessment for an alliance that he and others believe helps only a few is drain on resources.

"This payment, on top of the county property tax, does what they say they don't want to happen," Blackwelder said. "It drives tenants out of the downtown."

Others like Berg Mortuary owner Carl Berg said they have seen little benefit from alliance activities and beautification efforts because most are concentrated west of Center Street and at that street's intersection with University Avenue.

"Those who benefit the most are those right in the center part of the district, where the flowers and events are," Stewart said. "Berg Mortuary told me they pay $3,000 and get zero benefits."

Dozens of business owners are behind the alliance, like Heindselman's owner Ted Schofield, who credits the alliance with a decrease in vacancies on his block.