The LeFleur East Business Improvement District took another step forward after the Jackson City Council approved the special assessment for commercial property owners in the district.
Ashby Foote of Ward 1, Virgi Lindsay of Ward 7, Angelique Lee of Ward 2, Brian Grizzell of Ward 4 and Aaron Banks of Ward 6 voted in favor of the assessment.
Kenneth Stokes of Ward 3 and Vernon Hartley of Ward 5 abstained.
Sixty-four percent of business owners in the boundaries of the business improvement district voted on Aug. 9, 2022 in favor of the assessment.
Commercial property owners in the LeFleur East boundaries will pay an additional 7 cents per square foot of property along with their annual property taxes.
The assessment is expected to generate $224,360 for the district.
Fifty-five percent of the funds would go to landscaping, 35 percent to public safety and the rest to marketing, administration and a special contingency fund.
Warren Speed, chair of the LeFleur East Business Improvement District, said earlier this year that 2023 is the district’s planning and organizing year.
“We’re full steam ahead,” he said.
The business improvement district is like those in Fondren and downtown Jackson where property owners pay a special assessment along with their property taxes to foot the bill for projects such as beautification and additional security.
The Hinds County Tax Collector will collect the funds and the foundation will be responsible for using them. Funds will not be available until January 2024.
The District at Eastover, Highland Village, Maywood Mart, Banner Hall and The Quarter as well as businesses along Lakeland Drive are in the district boundaries. The District at Eastover, Highland Village, Maywood Mart, Banner Hall and The Quarter are among shopping centers that fall within the boundaries.
LeFleur East boundaries extend from north of Hanging Moss Creek to south of Lakeland Drive and LeFleur’s Bluff Education and Tourism Complex and east to west from the Pearl River to I-55 North.
Founded in 2012, LeFleur East has cleaned and added new plantings at Exit 100 on Northside Drive and made improvements to the median along Lakeland Drive.
