Anchorage’s Downtown Improvement District (DID) covers 120 square blocks, from 9th Avenue to 1st Avenue, and from Gambell Street to L Street.
Simply put, property owners created the assessment district to transform downtown into a clean, safe and vibrant neighborhood.
In 1997, downtown property owners successfully petitioned the Assembly to create the DID, funding the District through an assessment the Municipality collects of 1.5 mills of assessed value (or $1.50 per $1,000) on all property, excluding government property (city, state, and federal), churches, non-profit religious, charitable or educational organizations exempt from property taxes, and owner-occupied single-family residences. Downtown property owners created the improvement district to help improve the cleanliness of downtown, decrease crime, increase investment values along with occupancy rates and lease income, and to stimulate economic development, improving the quality of life in downtown. The exemptions for federal, state, and municipal properties reduce the total assessment by over 33%; however, some exempt property owners with major holdings within the DID pay a fee-in-lieu of assessment, which is critical in ADP’s financial sustainability and ability to provide services throughout the downtown improvement district.
Anchorage’s Downtown Improvement District was the first in Alaska, although thousands of others exist in the United States and throughout the world. In 2010, the DID was expanded to include the two western-most blocks from I past L Street.