Dover’s Downtown Downtown Development District plan is updated.
City Councilmembers passed an ordinance 6-2 Monday that extends its Downtown Development District boundaries further north and west.
The Downtown Development District operates separately from the Downtown Dover Partnership, but the DDP does cover some properties within the development district.
The ordinance also allows more eligible projects to receive Development District incentives.
One incentive allows eligible projects to receive property tax waivers for up to ten years, according to the city’s principal planner Dawn Melson-Williams.
“As part of the process, you receive a discount on your property taxes based on that improvement that you have made, and the start time is based on receiving a certificate of occupancy, which means your project has been completed to code.”
Melson-Williams said this is not new. The tax waiver has been a part of the package for years, and there are similar property tax abatements for other activities in Dover’s code.
In order to qualify for the waiver, a developer must be spending at least $5 thousand on a project and the developer has to submit an application, along with other provisions.
Melson-Williams said the state legislature expanded the development district from its original limit of 200 acres.
“With our renewal application that we completed last summer, we're taking full advantage of the ability to designate an area at 225 acres of land.”
The adopted ordinance puts the new downtown redevelopment area boundary into code.
