The Plano City Council agreed at a Dec. 14 regular meeting to continue collecting 15 cents per $100 of property valuations in historic downtown Plano's Public Improvement District. The rate is based on 2014 property value assessments.

All rates will remain the same except for Junction 15 since ownership changed when Southern Land Co. sold the five-story multifamily housing unit to Clarion Partners in November 2015.

“This year only one property is seeing an increase in assessment in PID. The other property owners will be paying exactly what they did last year,” said Phyllis Jarrell, Plano special projects director. “There is a cap of $25,000 per development project and this applies to large multifamily developments and the Junction 15 property this year will hit that $25,000 cap.”

The City Council approved the creation of the downtown Plano Improvement District in October 2014.  This district, which involves properties between Municipal and H avenues and 14th and 16th streets, was created to improve the appeal of the area through organized community events and beautification projects. The city contributes $50,000 to PID each year, Jarrell said.

“The property owners still remain supportive of the PID, as well as the merchants in downtown that are not property owners. Certainly they all benefit from the activities that are supported by the PID in terms of the efforts they have done on marketing and advertising,” she said. “I think all in all they have had a very successful first year of operation.”

After the adoption of the assessment plan, the PID will now send payment notices to the property owners since the payments are due in February.