Business Improvement District in St. Cloud Fails to Advance

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- Once again the plan to create a Business Improvement District in downtown St. Cloud has failed to become a reality.

During Monday night's City Council meeting, the administration pulled the setting of a second public hearing on the issue.

Mayor Dave Kleis says that's because 35 percent or more of the 169 impacted property owners vetoed the plan.  By state statute, 65 percent approval doesn't meet the threshold for support to move forward.

With the veto of this and not moving forward of the Business Improvement District by no means does it diminish the efforts, the enthusiasm, and the drive to continue to focus on downtown, it's still the city's top economic priority.

At a previous public hearing, a number of business owners spoke in strong support of creating a BID. A downtown St. Cloud Task Force has raised $750,000 in financial committments from businesses primarily not in the downtown to help support it.

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Kleis says the Task Force will now have to regroup to determine how they want to move forward.

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