Scope. This article establishes rules for the issuance and collection
of the City Centre Concourse user fee for purposes of the operation,
maintenance, management and capital improvements of the City Centre
Concourse.
Applicability. This article shall be applicable to all property owners
whose property is physically adjacent to or abuts the City Centre
Concourse, is part of the City Centre or is an adjoining hallway that
provides access from parcels to the exterior of the City Centre. This
shall include all property owners regardless of direct access to the
City Centre Concourse, as this may change periodically due to alterations
of individual properties. Parcel SBL No. 84.049-1-69 is not included
as a parcel subject to this chapter.
Referred to as "Concourse" shall be the enclosed pedestrian
structure constructed as part of the Jefferson Plaza Urban Renewal
Project connecting individual parcels. This is to include the exterior
loading dock and access hallway connecting the loading dock to the
concourse.
Referred to as "user fee," the fees charged to properties
that are physically adjacent to or abutting the Concourse for purposes
of the operation, maintenance, management and capital improvements
of the Concourse.
At the effective date of this legislation, any property owner
of a single parcel that exceeds 11,500 contiguous square feet physically
adjacent to or abutting the Concourse.
The user fee for the operation, maintenance, management and capital
improvement of the Concourse shall be reviewed and proposed annually
by the Director of Finance in order to determine whether there are
sufficient funds to defray the fixed charges, amortization costs and
annual costs of the Concourse. If the difference between the revenue
derived from the user fee and the total annual costs is sufficient
to justify an increase or decrease in the fees, the City shall make
the appropriate change which shall be confirmed by resolution of the
City Council and maintained on file in the office of the City Clerk.
All revenues derived from the user fee shall be kept in a separate
fund to be known as the Concourse fund. No expenditures chargeable
against the Concourse fund shall be incurred except upon appropriation
of the City Council and such expenditures must be for a purpose for
which such Concourse fund has been established.
The amount of the user fee on each parcel will be apportioned annually
and shall be billed separately from the parcel's tax bill. The
user fee shall be due and payable as follows: one-half the total user
fee on the first day of May and the balance of the user fee, without
payment of interest, on the first day of August of each year. Such
user fee shall become delinquent 30 days after the due dates.
Unpaid user fees shall be the personal liability of the owner of
the property and charges remaining unpaid 30 days after the May and
August user fee bills shall become a lien upon the property and be
included in the following tax assessment.
Each user fee bill shall include half of the annual user fee. A late
charge shall be added to the entire amount of each bill, to include
all delinquent amounts and late charges from the previous period that
are not paid by the due date. This will be referred to as balance
forward billing. The amount of the late payment charge shall be equal
to 5% of the delinquent balance for charges which are billed twice
a year and monthly plus a 1% late payment charge for every month thereafter.
In addition, a $20 processing fee shall be added to the total delinquent
balance when the delinquent balance becomes a lien.
User fees remaining unpaid 30 days after the May and August user
fee bills shall be immediately credited to the City Centre fund by
the general fund. The general fund shall then assume all liability
of unpaid user fees. All charges, penalties and interest collected
in accordance with this section shall be paid to the General Fund.
In the event the effective date of this law is after April 1, 2018,
the user fee to be assessed hereunder will be prorated from such effective
date through March 31, 2019.
The amount of user fee to be paid by each parcel owner shall be determined
by dividing the total fixed charges, amortization costs and annual
costs of the operation of managing the Concourse by the total square
footage of all parcels as identified by the City Assessor, multiplied
by the square footage of the parcel.
Single parcel owners, as defined in § 66-16 of this chapter, shall be assessed the set user fee against square footage, however the multiplier for the assessment shall be 11,500 square feet for such single parcels.
Starting fiscal year April 1, 2022, in accordance with § 66-17 of this chapter, the user fee shall be determined by the revenue needed from the user fee to support the total annual costs of the operation, maintenance, management and improvement of the Concourse.
Should any section, paragraph, sentence, clause or phrase in this
article be declared unconstitutional or invalid for any reason, the
remainder of the article shall not be affected thereby and shall remain
in full force and effect, and to this end the provisions of this article
are declared to be severable.