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Item No. 16 <br />memorandum <br />TO: Mayor & City Council <br />FROM: John Godwin, City Manager <br />SUBJECT: DOWNTOWN BUILDING REGISTRY <br />DATE: March 3, 2017 <br />BACKGROUND: Paris is blessed with a large number of very valuable, historically significant <br />buildings. Many have been redeveloped and /or repurposed, and many more are underway. We <br />continue to have a number of buildings that sit vacant and idle, however, making the downtown <br />as a whole less appealing and vital, and potentially harming the business potential of those who <br />have invested downtown. Safety is another concern; if a neighboring building is not secure, it <br />has great potential to harm neighboring buildings. Potential developers are often put off by the <br />condition of such structures. <br />STATUS OF ISSUE: One tool that has been used successfully in a number of cities with older <br />downtowns is a building registry. All unused buildings must be registered with the city. In this <br />way, the city has immediate contact information if anything goes wrong, certain basic standards <br />of care are put in place to keep those buildings from deteriorating, and unused properties pay a <br />fee for the registry that has been shown in many cases to encourage development of appropriate <br />uses. The Main Street advisory board reviewed the proposed registry ordinance at their February <br />meeting and unanimously recommended its adoption. <br />BUDGET: NA. <br />RECOMMENDATION: Adopt attached ordinance. <br />