Indiana Borough Council is scheduled to meet tonight, and one of the items on the agenda could be the Downtown Indiana Business Improvement District, which has been renamed the Indiana Downtown Improvement Area – or “IDIA”.
45 days ago, Downtown Indiana, Incorporated sent ballots to about two-hundred property owners in the redrawn boundaries within the plan. Those ballots were due to the Indiana Borough Secretary’s office yesterday. If sixty percent of downtown property owners voted yes, Downtown Indiana’s David Janusek says that will start a new clock on the business plan, with council advertising it for thirty days and then voting whether or not to enact it as a borough ordinance.
In addition to the new boundaries, Janusek says the new business improvement plan includes a Parcel Owners Advisory Board, a larger board that will provide for continuous review of the IDIA, and quarterly meetings that will enable members to discuss issues having to do with the IDIA.
If the new IDIA is approved by sixty percent of the businesses and the borough signs a cooperative agreement with Downtown Indiana to enact the ordinance, it would be it would be mandatory for all businesses.
By law, a BID has a term of five years. Indiana’s BID expired last year.
