GREENFIELD — City officials are considering creating a special district along Brandywine Creek that they say would boost economic activity by allowing for more alcoholic beverage permits.
It’s called a riverfront district, which state law allows along waterways. Within them, there’s no cap on non-carryout alcoholic beverage permits, which are otherwise limited based on a municipality’s population.
Despite the name, riverfront districts are possible along smaller waterways. Fortville leaders, for instance, are considering one flanking a creek and drainage ditches in town.
The one Greenfield officials are thinking about would be along Brandywine Creek and its floodplain. A map for one proposed area shows it would encompass downtown and areas along Main Street; a second area includes much of the commercial area along State Street north of McKenzie Road. (You can inspect the maps here)
Gregg Morelock, Greenfield city attorney, said at a Greenfield Redevelopment Commission meeting on April 20 that riverfront districts can be within 1,500 feet or three blocks, whichever is greater, from the edge of the waterway.
“The purpose of this is to encourage both economic and recreational development along the riverfront, so to speak,” Morelock said, adding there are several areas within the proposed district that would allow for commercial uses, restaurants and launch sites for canoes and kayaks.
Morelock said he thinks the city only has two alcoholic beverage permits currently at its disposal.
“And so they both become expensive and hard to get,” he added. “This would open up that aspect that so many restaurants and other types of facilities deem necessary for being viable.”
Morelock also said if the district were created, the city would establish screening mechanisms to determine whether it would recommend an applicant receive an alcoholic beverage permit.
Jason Koch, Greenfield city engineer, said the city aimed to exclude residential areas from the proposed riverfront district and focus on more commercial areas that may be declining or starting to decline.
“We’re trying to stimulate some things to happen in these areas where you might not expect it to,” Koch said. “We’re just trying to get all of the tools available for economic development and redevelopment.”
The redevelopment commission voted unanimously in favor of starting the process to establish the riverfront district.
Bruce Donaldson, an attorney with Barnes and Thornburg in Indianapolis providing legal counsel to the redevelopment commission, said at the meeting that some of the proposed riverfront district falls within a tax increment financing allocation area. A portion of taxes generated in a TIF allocation area gets set aside and is available to be used for projects that improve the area. The redevelopment commission voted unanimously in favor of making the parts of the proposed riverfront district not already in a TIF allocation area into their own allocation area.
“That’ll allow you some additional tools to capture new property taxes that are generated in this economic development area, that could be important, obviously, to help stimulate some of the things that you’ll need to do for economic activity,” Donaldson said.
The riverfront district is up for approvals next from the Greenfield Plan Commission and the Greenfield City Council. Then there will be a public hearing and a final vote from the redevelopment commission. A tax impact statement for the new TIF allocation area will have to be prepared as well, as a portion of taxes generated within it would get diverted from where they’d otherwise normally go, like Greenfield-Central schools.
