Proposed Dumpster Removal

Attention all businesses located on the Panera Bread Block (between Tenth & Ninth and Cherry & Locust):


As you may know, the City has been trying to replace the dumpsters located in your alley with a larger, enclosed compactor. Removing dumpsters makes the public alley more accessible to pedestrians, emergency vehicles and delivery vehicles and, for this alley in particular, tend to keep things cleaner.

Compactors also keep rates low downtown. Right now, commercial trash rates outside of downtown are increasing 60% while those within downtown are remaining the same.

However, we’ve found that adding a compactor to your block would eliminate too many parking spaces. An alternative plan has been proposed that would remove all the dumpsters from this block. Businesses would take their trash either to the dumpsters located across Ninth St. by the City Centre or across Tenth St. behind the white houses--or at least where they used to be.

Please let us know your opinion of this plan by emailing us at info@discoverthedistrict.com.

We encourage you to speak with your employees, janitorial service, or anyone else directly responsible for taking out the trash.

Avenue of the Columns Update

Here's a great article by Daniel Cailler of the Columbia Daily Tribune on the Avenue of the Columns progress:

Avenue backers look for jump-start
New city hall could boost Eighth Street

After the public plaza for the new city hall is completed this spring, improvements will spill out onto the Eighth Street and Broadway intersection.

The goal is to rekindle efforts of the long-running Avenue of the Columns project, which seeks to alter the landscape along Eighth Street from the Boone County Courthouse to the University of Missouri campus.

Assistant City Manager Tony St. Romaine wants to use construction of the new city hall as a catalyst for the project. A first step will be to redesign the Eighth Street and Broadway intersection to aesthetically match the look of the city hall plaza. For example, the old pavers in the road will be replaced with bricks more closely matching the colors used in the plaza.

“The end result will be a uniform design,” St Romaine said.

The city recently submitted a proposal to engineering firm K&S Associates for pricing of the intersection work.

The facelift won’t stop at the street. Using $250,000 in state tax credits secured by the city last year, Landmark Bank, Boone County National Bank and Greenwing Development LLC, owner of the building that houses the restaurant Sycamore, will receive a 50 percent tax credit against the cost of sidewalk improvements along their properties. The work will include installation of trees, benches, new brickwork and lighting.

All the work will coincide with the master plan document approved by the Avenue of the Columns Committee in 2005.

“What we hope that will do is set the standard for any future development,” St. Romaine said.

Further work depends on public-private partnerships, he said, because the city lacks money to do it on its own.

Mary Wilkerson, vice president of marketing at Boone County National Bank, is chairwoman of the Avenue of the Columns Committee. She said the goal of the project goes beyond beautification to creating a reason to lure pedestrians down the street.

A lack of retail space and imposing parking garages has stifled activity, she said.

“Until you have the type of mixed-use economic activity on Eighth as you do on Ninth, all the beautification won’t make a difference,” she said.

Improvements to Courthouse Square in the 1990s kicked off the plan, but Wilkerson said she knew when she started that the master plan would require multiple properties working together to implement it.

“There’s a lot that can be accomplished, but it won’t happen overnight. You’ve got to partner efforts with actual activity on the streets,” she said.

Wilkerson hopes the city hall project and plans to renovate the Tiger Hotel will spur additional improvements in the near future.

“For me, it’s a labor of love. I’m excited about seeing part of the streetscape project being implemented. That’s a huge accomplishment,” Wilkerson said.

Hospitality Zone Committee Meeting

An SBD Committee will be reviewing the proposed District Hopitality Zone Plan at 9 am, Wednesday, January 27 in our offices at 11 S. Tenth St.

A Hospitality Zone is designed to increase business, improve safety and generally create a fun and welcoming nighttime atmosphere in The District. Because of this we welcome input, particularly from those involved in the nighttime economy such as restaurants, bars and clubs.

This is currently in draft stage so this is the time to comment. If you can't make the meeting, please email me at cgartner@discoverthedistrict.com and I'll pass your comments along to the committee.

The draft is available at http://discoverthedistrict.com/pdf/Hospitality_Zone_v3.pdf.

CCA Agenda

AGENDA
Central Columbia Association
Board of Directors Meeting
January 20, 2010 at 11:30am
11 South Tenth Street


Call to Order


Approval November Minutes


Financial Reports November and December


Old Business


New Business
• Hospitality Zone Proposal

• 2010 Membership Drive


Director’s Report/SBD Report
• Holiday Sales Update
• Gift Certificate Report
• CID Update

Hospitality Zones

The Tribune has a good article on downtown hospitality zones and the draft we've been working on.

Some corrected information about the feedback process:

1) The entire draft plan has not yet been presented to the Downtown Safety Summit but will be at their meeting next week.

2) We will be seeking more input from businesses--bars and clubs in particular. We will definitely have a revised draft ready for discussion at the next SBD Board meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 4 pm. Most likely, we'll send it out the revised plan via email and through this blog to get some input from everyone.

Grants for Downtown Property Owners

The federal stimulus package contains a fantastic opportunity for downtown property owners interested in increasing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. (And with this weather, who isn't thinking about this?)

It's a two-step process and although it's a detailed program, here are the basics:

1) Energy Audit
An audit is conducted of the building to determine any problems. The federal government pays for approximately 75% of the audit, the City of Columbia pays 12.5% and the property owner only pays 12.5%.

2) Retrofitting
Projects are ranked based on their return on investment. For retrofitting, the federal government will pay 25% of the costs. In addition, the City of Columbia offers rebates on HVAC and lighting upgrades, further reducing the cost to the property owner.

Again, it's a detailed program and this is a rough overview but either way, it's a sweetheart deal.

The City must apply for the grant and to do so, they need 10 property owners to sign a letter of support for the audit phase of the program by this Tuesday.

We're asking for property owners to sign letters of support for the City's grant application. Agreeing to the audit phase of the program does not obligate you to move forward with the retrofitting but we do recommend taking advantage of this great program should we be awarded the grant.

Below is a link to a sample letter that can be faxed to 499-0421 or emailed to cgartner@socket.net. Again, the deadline for letters is tomorrow by 5 pm.

If you have any questions, give us a call at 442-6816.

Download the letter...

SBD Agenda

AGENDA
Columbia Special Business District
Board of Directors Meeting
January 12, 2010, 4pm
11 South Tenth Street


Call To Order

Welcome Returning Board Members
John Ott, Mary Wilkerson, Skip Walther

Approval of December Minutes

Approval of December Financials

Police Report

Committee Reports
• CID (Vangel)
Presentation to Council

• Downtown Leadership Council (Wilkerson)

• Downtown Safety Summit (Ott)

Old Business
• Downtown Police Force (Gartner)

• Draft Hospitality Zone Plan (Gartner)

• CID Campaign Training Session (Vangel/Gartner)
Please review list, board members will be assigned property owners from the list to contact.

New Business
• Green Streets Grant – energy efficiency grants (Wilkerson/Gartner)


Director’s Report
Holiday Sales Update

City Report

Public Comment

Adjournment

Snow Removal

Just a reminder, everyone is responsible for snow removal on the sidewalks outside their building.  It's not too icy out there but a layer of salt or snow melt can't hurt.  Last year the city was citing anyone who did not remove snow in a timely manner.

Fortunately, downtown is priority one for snow removal on streets.  If there's too much snow you'll notice it being plowed into the middle of the street.  Seems odd, particularly when trying to cross, but they try to avoid plowing the snow into the on-street parking spaces.

Finally, we recommend everyone park in garages.  It'll keep you car a bit warmer and you can avoid having to clean it off before you can go home.

Support our Downtown Officers

We need your help to keep a dedicated patrol team here in downtown!

Last summer, the Columbia Police Department began a test of their new geographic policing strategy with a new downtown safety team. Downtown was assigned a sergeant, four nighttime officers and one daytime officer--all dedicated to keeping downtown safe and vital.

It is a new strategy and it's important that we let the City Council, the City Manger and the Police Department know that we support our downtown officers.

Unfortunately, our nighttime team has already lost an officer--reassigned to another beat. We can't let the entire team be transferred out of downtown.

Please help out by letting the city know how important this team is to downtown.
You can contact the City Council via email at www.gocolumbiamo.com/Council.

City Manager Bill Watkins can be reached at www.gocolumbiamo.com/Council/City_Manager.

Finally, you can send a message regarding the downtown officers to Chief Ken Burton at www.gocolumbiamo.com/Police. Just make sure you mention the downtown squad.

It's important to contact everyone to make sure your voice is heard.