The final meeting on the proposed Brighton Principal Shopping District property assessment increase was held Thursday night. The current assessment expires on June 30th and, if the new amount is approved, the PSD Board wants it to go on the tax rolls this summer. Only downtown buildings are charged the PSD assessment, not the businesses themselves.

The PSD Board is proposing to double the current assessment to 28 cents a square foot for first floors of Main Street buildings and 13 cents per square foot for properties along Grand River. Judy Parsons, who owns the Parsons Building on West Main, says she doesn’t like the fact that under the proposal, 70% of the revenues would go toward improving the holiday lighting displays.

PSD Chair Mark Binkley has said that a substantial amount would go toward expanding the marketing area and doing more with billboard ads and other types of promotion. The assessment, if approved as proposed, would increase revenues by $42,000 to an annual total of $112,000.

Brighton Assistant to the City Manager Jessica Leinhardt tells WHMI the legal procedure that the proposed assessment is required to go through at this point. Leinhardt says the assessment, if it passes council scrutiny, would be in effect for four years. (TT)