Gail Derroder
Dimitri Fetkakis will vote Thursday to send fellow business owners in Houston's Montrose neighborhood a new tax bill that hasn't been assessed by the local governing district in more than 50 years.
The owner of Nico Nico's restaurant, who is also a board member of the long-dormant but recently revived Montrose Management District, said he understands there will be some backlash. Legal challenges from affected businesses and petitions to dissolve the district hit a rock in spring 2018, but some of the same detractors have continued to oppose its operation since then, and Mont. The longtime business owner, who lives in Rose, said he opposes management district operations. It is unnecessary and undesirable.
Fetkakis said he understands not wanting to pay additional taxes to a managed district (a government entity originally created by the state of Texas and intended to fill gaps in services provided by cities), but it's worth it. He also said that he considered it a certain investment. The Montrose Management District will spend most of the tax revenue it collects on public safety and security measures, while also focusing on economic development as well as the maintenance and beautification of the city's popular and lively neighborhoods.
“I empathize with everyone who has a problem. I don't want to pay the appraisal fee,” Fetkakis said. “We just want to take care of our neighborhoods.”
Thursday's district board meeting is open to the public and will be held at 9600 Long Point Road starting at 2 p.m. #250. In addition to planned votes on setting tax assessment rates and rolls, collecting annual assessments on property owners within school district boundaries, and approving service and assessment plans, district board members will sit on four committees. The nomination of four new board members will also be considered. Remnants from 2018, including fetkakis.
The Montrose Management District held its last board meeting on Dec. 14, marking the first time board members have met since March 22, 2018. At the time, the board passed the resolution amid a years-long legal dispute between the district and Montrose property owners. The district will be dissolved in response to the petition, according to a copy of the meeting minutes obtained through an open records request.
However, district spokesman Alan Bernstein said the board's vote at the time was conditional, and the district ultimately did not dissolve.
“The board has said it will dissolve if a judge issues an order to dissolve it,” Bernstein said. “That order was not issued.”
Bernstein said the decision to reopen was in response to a request from former Mayor Sylvester Turner's administration, whose office received feedback from developers to complement capital improvements being undertaken by the Montrose Management District. He said he had heard of the Montrose Management District's desire to provide services again for a purpose. The Montrose Tax Incremental Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) is another superlocal tax entity created by the city in 2015, Bernstein said. Among those developers were Skanska and Hannover.
Bernstein said the district's service plan has expired, so it must petition business owners to get back in business. Bernstein said the district has met the legal requirements for reopening, with more than 60 signatures gradually collected since 2018.
But Daphne Scarborough, a former City Council candidate and longtime opponent of the management district who owns a Montrose metal fabrication company called Brass Maiden, questioned whether the organization had been legally reformed and said Tuesday that He voiced his concerns at the Houston City Council meeting. He also said controlled areas amounted to “taxation without representation.”
“Something is rotten in Denmark,” Scarborough said. “If they didn't break up, why didn't they continue to operate after they said they would break up in 2018? So where have they been all this time? Why are they breaking up again now?”
RELATED: Broken Montrose-area bridge lights to be repaired after Houston leaders approve funding
The Montrose Management District has been managed and managed since 2006 by Hawes Hill & Associates, a local consulting firm that provides the same functions for nearly a dozen other management districts in the Houston area. It has put together a revised service plan that includes lower assessment rates and several exemptions. This includes businesses like Scarborough that double as residential real estate. Single-family homes are fully exempt, as before.
The new tax rate proposed by the district, which is roughly bordered by West Dallas Street to the north, Interstate 69 to the south, South Shepherd Drive to the west, and Texas Spur 527 to the east, would be: It's 9 cents. , down from the previous rate of 12 cents. But Mr Scarborough said real estate values had risen significantly in recent years, so businesses that were assessed were likely to end up paying more than they were before.
Among other changes, apartment complexes with 25 or fewer units and mixed-use properties where the business component accounts for less than 60% of the total assessed value will be exempt from assessment. Mid-to-high-rise buildings will be assessed based on four levels of structure value.
The district's budget is expected to be more than $2.1 million next year and about $32.5 million over the next 15 years, with 60 percent of that revenue going to public safety and security. The district also must pay a settlement of more than $500,000 to 1620 Hawthorne, which sued the district more than a decade ago, and Bernstein said the settlement will be split into two payments over the next two years. He said that he would be paid.
“I don't think they have any purpose,” Scarborough said. “Everything they do is reproducible. We already pay property taxes. We already have police patrolling. So when we talk to businesses, they don't offer us anything. I won't give it to you.”
Fetkakis, NicoNico's owner and district board member, disagrees with that assertion. He said he and other small business owners like him support the revitalization of managed districts, which could benefit from services that managed districts can provide that the city doesn't necessarily implement. He said it was because he wanted to.
He also said he wants to ensure transparency, fairness and efficiency in spending so that public trust can be rebuilt given the district's history. Fetkakis said he wants the board to be representative of the diversity of Montrose businesses, adding that he has appointed both small business owners and large business owners to the board.
Appointments of new officers must then be approved by Mayor John Whitmire and the Houston City Council.
“Let's get in there and see if we can get this thing right,” Fetkakis said. “It's not easy. It looks easy, but when you have a lot of people against it and a lot of backlash, you have to consider things like that as well.”
