This message is paid for by the Town of Middlebury

Established in 1996, the Downtown Improvement District Commission (DIDC) and the accompanying downtown district, is designed to provide additional taxing authority and revenues to the Selectboard to implement public improvements in the downtown district.

The purpose of the DIDC is: “To establish a special assessment district for downtown improvements, and to provide additional taxing authority to the Select Board, revenues from which shall be designated funds to (provide) partial financing, and to leverage financing from other sources, for implementing public improvements and benefiting properties in the District.”

Over the past 28 years the DIDC has funded an impressive range of projects including:

• New sidewalks
• Installation of historic streetlight fixtures
• Improvements to Triangle Park, Cannon Park, and Riverside Park
• Wayfinding signs
• Rapid-flashing beacon pedestrian lights
• Removal of old and re-painting of new “Walk bike” sidewalk stencils
• Landscaping of the new town offices
• Funding to support the downtown businesses during the rail tunnel construction
• Decorative grates around the new trees on Merchants Row
• Benches in Triangle Park
• Wi-Fi for the Triangle Park and Town Green areas
• As well as much more

The DID also contributes 15% of its annual revenue to the Better Middlebury Partnership (BMP) to fund its staff and 10% to the maintenance of past projects.

Importantly, the DID requires re-authorization every seven years by at least two-thirds of the DID’s property owners. The current seven-year period expires on June 30, 2025. This summer the DIDC sent a petition to the property owners to renew the DID for another seven years, to June 30, 2032. Property owners are encouraged to sign the petition and mail it in to the town.

The district is narrowly defined to an irregular circular area just outside the core of the downtown. It includes just past the roundabout to the southwest, includes the Marbleworks Business District, Gregs Market, Middlebury Discount Beverage, RK Miles, and Danforth Pewters; the Swift House at Elm Street to the Sunoco Station (near Mary Hogan Elementary School) to the south; and Shaw’s shopping complex, and Milne Travel on Washington Street.

Taxable properties within this district are commercial only; no additional taxes are allocated to residential parts of any

related properties.

If you have any questions, current board members of the DIDC are: Dan Brown, Bill Cunningham, Stacey Rainey, Phyllis Stinson (alternate), Lorraine Tobias, Vice-Chair, Heidi Franz Trembley (alternate) and Kathleen Ramsay, town manager. There are two vacancies on the board. If you have questions, contact Ramsay at [email protected].

Use of funds: Revenues generated from the DID shall be used for implementing a broad range of major and minor public improvements located on public and private property within the District and providing a benefit to the assessed properties therein. The DIDC, which is appointed by the Select Board, shall identify and develop the budget for improvements and make recommendations to the Select Board for inclusion during the annual Town budget as part of the Capital Improvement Plan.

Tax Assessment: The tax rate shall be determined by the Select Board by dividing the amount to be raised by taxes, by the total value of the assessed property in the District subject to the tax. Under no circumstances shall the amount raised by taxes in the DID exceed $100 per $100,000 of assessed value.

Based on a level-funded Downtown Improvement District (DID) Budget of $33,333 for FY25 divided by the $650,229.24 DID Grand List (based on property value of $65,022,924), the calculated tax rate is $.0513 (the same as FY24).

The DIDC is planning a renewal hearing on October 8, 2024 and will work on collecting signatures for the renewal petition to extend the DID designation.

The Petition: Remember to read the petition and send it back to the Town Manager, Town of Middlebury, 77 Main St, Middlebury, or expect a visit from a DIDC board member or volunteer soon! (If you have misplaced the petition, you can find one here.)