Public hearing on Feb. 13 at village council meeting

By Jim Newell
Managing Editor
OXFORD – The Oxford Downtown Development Authority’s proposed financing and development plan is up for renewal and the public, downtown business owners and taxing authorities will have a chance to weigh in on the plan in February.
The Oxford Village Council will hold a public hearing during its meeting on Feb. 13 to hear input on the proposed Development and Tax Increment Financing Plan.
The plan is for 20 years, from 2024-2044, and sets the goals and projects for the DDA, the boundaries of the development area and tax capture revenues for the DDA.
“Nothing is changing from it. We’re not changing boundaries. We’re not trying to capture from additional entities. We are just trying to move forward,” DDA Executive Director Kelly Westbrook said, adding that only some of the language in the plan is being updated.
The development area of the plan consists of the downtown core, which includes the properties and the immediate adjacent areas on the east and west sides of M-24.
The TIF plan establishes how the DDA is funded. The DDA’s tax capture is the increase on taxable value of properties in its district since the DDA was created in 1986. Properties that are in the DDA district are not taxed at a higher rate because they are in the DDA district.
One of the concerns Westbrook has is that some businesses and taxing authorities could ask for a reduction in the amount of taxes the DDA captures from their assessment. For instance, Oxford Township could ask for a reduction in the amount the DDA captures from its millages.
“They would either need to contact the village council by the Feb. 13 date or show up at the public hearing and let us know if they’re asking for a reduction in the tax capture or if they were pulling their funding completely,” Westbrook said.
Some of the other taxing authorities are the Village of Oxford, the Charter Township of Oxford and Oakland County, who could all ask for a reduction in what the DDA captures.
“Those are three of the big ones,” Westbrook said. “They cannot pull out completely, but they can ask for a reduction in the tax capture, or they can come to us. We haven’t had anybody do it yet, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not coming down the pipeline.”
But Westbrook and the DDA hope that doesn’t happen.
Westbrook’s goals are to educate people on what the DDA does, and to remind people what the DDA has accomplished, especially over the last three years.
The DDA’s annual budget is $450,000 per year, all from tax captures.
“Our budget is really so minimal for what we have accomplished over the last three years,” Westbrook said, citing the DDA’s gift card program, the signage and wayfinding downtown, the façade grants the DDA awards, the concert series in Centennial Park, events in downtown Oxford, attracting and promoting businesses and being able to acquire grants.
“One thing for the public to understand is that tax capture from the other authorities doesn’t have anything to do with the public’s taxes. It’s not saying that their taxes don’t change regardless, it’s just saying that the money we capture from those different entities,” Westbrook said.
“Our mission is to help this community and be the very best and support our downtown businesses,” Wesbrook said. “That’s what we want to do but we can’t do it unfunded.”
The DDA staff overhead is relatively small, with Westbrook working fulltime and parttime Project and Media Coordinator Kimberly Smith. The DDA also has a loyal cadre of volunteers who work on committees and help with events and projects in downtown Oxford.
“We do raise a lot from sponsorships and grants to get those things done but without a DDA in place we wouldn’t even be eligible to go out and get those grants. A lot of those are through the Main Street program which is through Oakland County. Because we’re a DDA we have the ability to apply for those.”
Westbrook also highlights the marketing and promotions the DDA has done, including the #StrongerTogther partnership with Lake Orion, an award-winning program that promotes both downtowns, to bring people downtown.
“We were just selected by National Main Street to present on what we’ve accomplished in Washington Square the past two-and-a-half years. Now we’ll be going in front of every state in Alabama in May 2024 and presenting on Oxford. So, it’s opportunities like that, that will go away if the DDA goes unfunded,” Westbrook said.
“We have been on a such a good track. We do get along with village council great, we do get along with the township great. We have such a great team and we’ve been able to accomplish so much over the past three years that it goes to show that when a DDA is doing what they’re supposed to be doing and we’re getting along so well and moving forward, I would hate for that to have to stop,” Westbrook said. “I think we saw before we started this machine the last three years, there wasn’t a lot going on, and what it looked like for our downtown and the community.”
The concert in the park series, Witches Night Out, the Soup and Sweet Stroll, Scarecrow Festival and other DDA events all saw record turnout in 2023, Smith and Westbrook said.
“Anywhere we go, personally or professionally, we will run into somebody who has some positive feedback about what has happened over the past few years,” Smith said. “The events that are taking place, growing those events, bringing more people and walkability to the downtown.”
“We’ve added 15 new events in downtown Oxford,” Westbrook said.
The DDA also started the Farmers Market in Washington Square and now holds monthly events with Lake Orion, bringing people from one community to the other to cross-promote each downtown, Smith said.
Three areas the DDA has remodeled over the past three years include Washington Square for outdoor events, the Pati-O on the east side of M-24 and The Courtyard project, which will be finished in the spring.
The DDA has also given more than 30 grants to downtown business over the last three years for façade improvements and signage.
The DDA is working on adding additional crosswalks downtown, redoing sidewalks on Burdick Street, adding additional placemaking areas, adding lights to the tops of downtown businesses and working to become a trail community.
“We look at the progress we’ve made over the last three years and if funding goes away, we backtrack. We lose events. Right now, except for the chamber’s Christmas Parade, we put on every event in the downtown,” Westbrook said.