Cottleville passes ‘Community Improvement District’ sales tax

Residents of the city of Cottleville passed the proposed Community Improvement District (CID) voted upon by mail May 5. Now, it’s all up to the Board of Aldermen to determine how much sales tax will be enacted.

The CID passed by 10 votes - 93 to 83 – which was a 19 vote turnaround, said Cottleville Mayor Don Yarber.

The newly approved initiative imposes a Community Improvement District-wide sales and use tax at a rate of 1percent for a period of not more than 40 years. Named “The Old Town Cottleville Community Improvement District” (CID) it includes residents of Madison Park and Harmony Ridge subdivisions and other non-residential areas from Cottleville’s Old Town to Weiss Road and along the commercial area of Cottleville Parkway.

“Over a year ago property owners signed a petition initiating a vote for a CID for the old town area,” said City Administrator Scott Lewis.

The recent election brought in more than 50 percent of the required vote, Lewis said.

Lewis said some of the city projects, like the Podhorn Memorial Trail, had already begun. Other projects that will benefit from the CID will be the pedestrian signal at the intersection of Cottleville Parkway and Weiss Road, and numerous other projects like upgrading the landscaping down Cottleville Parkway, moving forward with the trail to connect Warren Elementary to the new city park.

“We are trying to use the CID money to leverage it for more trail grants and safe routes to school grants,” Lewis said. “Now that the CID is approved, it will match funds provided to the city in grants.”

Community gardens are planned for Vantage Park, and although the city already has a grant for parking and lighting, the CID would build on that main project and bring it to some of the side streets. A parking lot was slated for the post office area, and improvements were to be made to side streets.

Passing of the CID means those debts would be paid through sales tax revenue rather than taxpayer funds.