VERO BEACH — The City Council voted Tuesday night to create the city’s first Economic Development Zone.

By a 4-1 vote, the council formed the zone, which includes the historic downtown, at the urging of a group of downtown business owners. As properties in the zone appreciate in value, the higher taxes will pay into a trust fund, and from there will pay for improvement projects.

The zone includes about 530 commercial real estate parcels in some of the longest inhabited parts of the city and is roughly framed by U.S. 1 on the east and near 20th Avenue to the west, and the North Relief Canal south to 16th Street.

A recent assessment of properties in the zone counted almost $192 million in total, about 9 percent of Vero Beach’s taxable value.

Only commercial properties would pay taxes into the zone’s trust fund. Areas in the new zone include the U.S. 1 corridor, the Arts District, the 14th Avenue and 17th Street business districts and the Twin Pairs through downtown.

The new zone also includes the Original Town neighborhood. Subdivided for the Indian River Farms Land Co. in 1913, it is now a mix of homes, apartments, offices and churches.

Only commercial land may be involved in an Economic Development Zone, said architect Peter Jones, who chairs a committee of area business and land owners who support the trust fund. However, adjacent areas might benefit from sidewalk improvements and historical markers.

The committee has been meeting for more than a year, after a city ordinance passed in May 2012 allowed tax increment financing, which captures any increase in taxes for a certain area because of increased property value and puts it in a trust fund for improvements to that area.

The amount isn’t likely to be large, at least not at first, according to a report by Timothy McGarry, the city’s director of planning and development. Finance officials told him a 1 percent rise in property values in the zone would generate about $3,700 at the city’s current tax rate. Five consecutive such years would garner $56,000; after 10 years, $210,000. Jones said there also may be state and federal grant money possible.

Tuesday’s dissenting vote was from Councilwoman Pilar Turner. She expressed concern that beach and Miracle Mile property owners might someday want their own Economic Development Zones, further reducing the city’s tax base.

“They’re getting special treatment in (the downtown) area and not others,” Turner said.

Twenty-one downtown business and property owners will serve on a new city advisory committee to develop suggested capital projects inside the downtown area. Jones said so far only concepts for projects have been discussed.

City Manager James O’Connor said City Council will have the final say on how money in the trust fund is spent. Some ideas discussed so far include landscaping, added parking and decorative banners.

Lakeway City Council members approved a special-use permit for a childcare facility at the southeast corner of Lohmans Crossing and Rolling Green Drive at the March 17 council meeting.

The 8,000-square-foot childcare facility, which will be called Little Sunshine Playhouse, sits on 1.3 acres owned by Lakeway LS Development, LLC. Developer Stephen Brown said the facility would house 136 students on a daily basis and that the facility will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“Their business model is to provide valet service for their clients,” Troy Anderson, director of building and development services, said. “When the children are delivered to the facility, an employee comes out to meet them at their vehicle and unloads the passengers. It provides for a quick turnover of cars, and they aren’t expecting too much queuing of vehicles.”

The assisted pickup method results in car lines no longer than two or three cars, Brown said. The facility is made to look like a “high-end” home, Brown said, using stucco and rock.

“Outdoor playtime is from 10 to 11 (a.m.) and 4 to 5 (p.m.), so not super early in the morning or obviously not late in the evening,” Brown said. “The unique features include kid cams, so you can dial into where your child is in the facility and see them at any time of the day.”

One resident attended the meeting to voice their support of the project, and several other residents emailed letters of support.

“I endorse this facility,” resident Peter Brodnitz said. “I was not too pleased with some of the earlier ideas about how to use this lot. I think that the architecture here looks just lovely. I’d like to speak to the architect about landscaping the driveway area, but overall I think it’s a good idea.”

Council members asked questions of how traffic would be handled and were informed by Anderson that entrances will be built both off of Lohmans Crossing and Rolling Green Drive. Councilman Joe Bain said several residents had complained to him about the potential for a playscape on the property and said he would like to see a solid fence around the playscape, but the matter was dropped when other councilmembers disagreed.

“I love the idea of the kiddy cam,” Councilwoman Dee Ann Burns said. “When I took my little boy to preschool, I stayed outside and looked through the window. You need kiddy cams.”

The motion to grant the special use permit passed unanimously.

Tainter Menomin Lake Improvement Association, a nonprofit volunteer organization, was formed in 1990.

“It has a long history of trying to identifying timely and current issues that will create a better situation and build partnerships that assist in improving the situation,” said Ron Verdon, the president of the association and former department chair and program director for the art program at UW-Stout. “I think a big part of [TMLIA] is education, so my educational background is valuable.”

The retiree felt getting involved in the lake association was extremely important after recognizing how much he uses the surrounding lakes for fishing: “We have a wonderful opportunity here to work as a community to pull people together and create a much better environment than we’ve seen in the past.”

As resident of Lake Tainter, a farm owner and city property owner, Verdon and his wife feel that they are able to contribute ideas from a comprehensive perspective. But, he admits, in addition to both his knowledge and that of the TMLIA’s board members, there are many other partnerships that play a key role in a successful recovery of Menomonie waters. “What we really know is that none of us can do it by ourselves,” he said. “We need to partner with the county, conservation office, city, and Department of Natural Resources.”

Improving the lakes

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources wrote a proposal with input from the public and the lake association. The document reports on the Phospohorus Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) and is what Verdon likes to call the recovery program for Lake Tainter and Menomin. The document was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2012.

“It recognizes — from not only a state level, but also a federal level — the impaired waters that we have,” Verdon said. The report helped to establish a plan to achieve the association’s goal: Clean and safe waters by 2018.

In October 2013, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources also approved an erosion grant that would run through June 30, 2014. “The purpose of this grant was to identify an effective strategy to deal with [58] erosion sites on the Red Cedar river above Lake Tainter,” Verdon said.

In 2012, a position was established on the TMLIA board of directors for a student to lend a voice for UW-Stout. Danny Jay, an applied social science major, has been the most recent director, remaining on the board since January 2013. “We established this position because we felt it would be extremely critical to have student participation and input,” Verdon said. “Danny has been doing a wonderful job of sharing insights and bringing student involvement to us.”

Jay has been able to raise awareness on campus among UW-Stout students. “Last semester I started a collective of students who are interested in promoting lake health and lake benefits on campus,” said Jay. “As a result, many students began working on lake-related research projects. Other students made an effort to assist in volunteer opportunities that assist with cleaning the lake.”

In fact, last fall Sigma Lambda Chi, an honors construction organization, assisted TMLIA by surveying multiple cross-sections of the Red Cedar River. The data provided critical information for the consulting group, hired by TMLIA, to write the erosion report, which was funded by a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

“They had a very keen interest in the environment and what I really liked about it was the fact that they were utilizing expertise from their own program,” Verdon said.

Not only were the students able to apply their skills learned in the classroom to real life, they also greatly contributed to the association and the community. “Without their commitment, it would have been very challenging for us to put [the project] on a very short schedule,” Verdon said. “We were right at the end of the season and needed to get it done before the snow hit — otherwise this would have been pushed out another year.”

With the help of UW-Stout students, TMLIA will be looking for a finished report this week — just a mere three months since the project started in November.

Verdon and Jay stress that there are several ways for students and the public to get involved. The annual Red Cedar Land, Water, and People Conference was held at UW-Stout Memorial Student Center on March 13. Verdon noted that this event not only educates the community, but also “provides students, the general public, and professionals an opportunity to network, and is very instrumental in building these partnerships.”

The networking opportunity is not limited to the local community of Menomonie; the conference also brought in regional and national speakers.

On April 5, the association is holding a Waterfront Landscaping Workshop in the Dunn County Judicial Center from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The workshop will inform lake shore owners — and anyone else interested — how to landscape their waterfront in a way that ensures the best water and shoreline quality.

Although the details have yet to be finalized, Jay is working to connect students, faculty and community members who are interested in learning about the lake. “At these meetings, we are hoping to educate, brainstorm, conduct research, and work on changing and promoting lake-related policies,” he said.

For more information about the Tainter Menomin Lake Improvement Association, visit tmlia.org. Email Ron Verdon, rverdon@att.net, or Danny Jay, jayd2533@my.uwstout.edu, with any questions or to volunteer to collaborate in the efforts to improve Menomonie waters.