Municipal Management Districts

[Spjz]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/021209dnmetdalcouncil.351c1a8.html


The Dallas City Council took a significant step Wednesday toward allowing developers to create quasi-governmental districts that can issue public debt and levy taxes within defined areas.

With one dissenting vote, the council consented to the creation of three municipal management districts, or MMDs, that could give developers a powerful tool to build primary infrastructure in areas where the city won't.

Three development groups have asked the city to let them create the districts, which require approval not only from the City Council but also from the Texas Legislature.

What happened? A few weeks ago I'd never heard of an MMD. Does anybody else thing that this happened all too quickly?

[aygriffith]

What happened? A few weeks ago I'd never heard of an MMD. Does anybody else thing that this happened all too quickly?

Levy Taxes?

Dallas should be weary of developers who are all to happy to push agendas such as this at a time when the city is cutting back and is vulnerable to these types of dupes

[tamtagon]

I glad this is finally happening in Dallas. It's worked well in Houston for a long time.

[tamtagon]

The article in the Dallas Business Journal is much more informative....

http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2009/02/09/daily33.html?surround=lfn


Dallas Business Journal - by Bill Hethcock

The City of Dallas is proceeding with plans to create three special districts to pay for improvements and economic development using funds collected from taxes or assessments collected from property owners.
...
The districts would include:

• North Oak Cliff ****— A 313-acre urban infill project being developed by Dallas-based Incap Fund in what’s being called the River District Area. It includes pockets roughly bounded by Davis Street on the south, Cockrell Hill Road on the west, Interstate 30 on the north and Zang Boulevard on the east.

• Trinity River West — A 342-acre site owned by investment company West Dallas Investments surrounding the westside connection point of the planned Calatrava Bridge. It’s roughly bounded by Commerce Street on the south, Sylvan Avenue on the west, Pueblo Street on the north and Beckley Avenue on the east.

• North Lake ****— A 942-acre site being developed by Lucy Billingsley, roughly bounded by Belt Line Road on the north and west, Hackberry Drive on the south, and Vista Circle and Lakebreeze Road to the east.

Incap’s North Oak Cliff project is planned as mixed-use development and envisions high-density work force housing near Dallas’ downtown, Uptown, Victory Park and Trinity River Urban Lakes project. Creating a management district there could fund a street car system along Davis Boulevard, connecting residents to downtown Dallas and the Dallas Area Rapid Transit light-rail system, city plans say.
...
Houston has more than 20 MMDs, which tend to be effective in well-defined areas with strong real-estate markets but struggle in weaker submarkets that lack catalyst projects or a strong economic base, according to information gathered by Dallas city staffers and presented to the city’s Economic Development Committee....

[Someone]

dallas has had dozens of these for decades....they are called Plano, Arlington, Irving, Richardson, Frisco, Grapevine, H.E.B, Carrollton, Farmers Branch, Lewisville and on and on

I see the chance of many these actually taking off in dallas proper as very slim......you still can't escape the underlying cost of the ineptitude of dallas government, dallas schools, dallas county, and the "they have it where is mine" mentality that drove people to all the above places decades ago

some might get off the ground in dallas, but I predict they will soon collapse because of high cost and the inability to really improve much besides streets and medians (which itself will become a point of contention with those outside the zone of exclusivity) while the attempts to improve on anything else will be met incendiary claims of exclusion, service for a few while others go under served, and probably worse language

why add another layer of overhead when you can just go a few miles up the road to a place with a functioning government without the burden of dallas government and some dallasites to get in the way :not_ripe:

[mjblazin]

Aren't these just a way to allow the developers to access municipal debt market with its lower rates than if they borrowed the money themselves to build this infrastructure? It's a capital vs. expense variation on the districts where businesses self-tax themselves and pay for services for themselves.

[Cliff Dweller]

I think mjblazin is right. The only advantage I can see to these districts is the ability of the developers to sell bonds. Otherwise, I can't figure out why they would want to do it.

As such, I worry that this is another case of looking for the early, easy money, and not dealing with the long-term consequences (sell it and run, or declare bankruptcy later on).

[Someone]

I think mjblazin is right. The only advantage I can see to these districts is the ability of the developers to sell bonds. Otherwise, I can't figure out why they would want to do it.

As such, I worry that this is another case of looking for the early, easy money, and not dealing with the long-term consequences (sell it and run, or declare bankruptcy later on).

they do it because they know there a few fools out there that think they claim they are something special and some uber "caring" or "enlightened and sustainable" person because they choose to live in a utopia in the middle of a large poorly run city....the developer can put everything in place with little or no expense....sell it to the fools that want to look down their nose on the suburbs and then in a few years when the debt service is sky high, the cost to maintain the utopia is growing out of control, and the downsides to living in the larger city itself become apparent the developer is long gone with big profits for what was really worthless urban land that no one without the ability to double tax the residents would have considered touching

I say good for them and oh well for those that fall for it...have fun paying city taxes and your MMD taxes and sending your kids to private schools or to a school where 50%+ can't perform at grade level

[ksig121]

Wow... When did you get so bitter?

[jswilson64]

Wow... When did you get so bitter?

Probably lived in a MUD (municipal utility district) in the Austin area before moving to D/FW, and had to sell at a loss due to the high taxes and MUD fees attached to the property.

If you see MMD attached to a piece of property, run away!