Lafayette leaders support creation of a DDA

LAFAYETTE — Lafayette City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday for a measure that spells out the board’s support for a November ballot measure that aims to replace the Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority with a Lafayette Downtown Development Authority. 

“With the Fair Campaign Practices Act, council can direct staff to draft a resolution of support, which is the only tool council can use to advocate as a body for a ballot item,” Lafayette economic development director Brigid Keating told city officials.

The measure approved Tuesday makes explicit the body’s collective support for both the organization of the DDA, which would be established with the approval next month of Ballot Question 6A, and for the new DDA’s ability to collect, retain and spend money, to be established with the passage of Question 6B.

Established in 1999 in an effort to revitalize an area of Old Town generally located along a stretch of Public Road from Baseline Road to the north to South Boulder Road to the south, LURA’s tax-increment financing is “sunsetting this year” in October, Keating said during an August hearing on the ballot measure.

In anticipation of this funding expiration, city leaders and staff established the Old Town Tomorrow: The LURA Transition Project working group to evaluate options for continuing revitalization and economic-development work in Lafayette’s core district. 

“We have been working for over two years now on this. The Old Town Tomorrow project working group evaluated four options for Old Town after LURA, and what was recommended was Downtown Development Authority,” Keating said in August. “A DDA was recommended as a best alternative to support businesses, serve as a unified voice for Old Town and continue to revitalize the city’s downtown while also preserving its diverse, creative and eclectic character.”

A DDA, according to a Louisville staff memo, “is a quasi-governmental entity that provides both organization and financing for downtown revitalization efforts. It operates in an accountable and transparent manner and can utilize tax increment financing to fund district improvements. TIF is a tool used by local governments across the country to fund improvements in a specified area without raising taxes. Instead, as an area’s property and sales tax revenues increase, that value is captured and reinvested to fund improvements that will help achieve a community’s desired goals.”