Denton's downtown tax increment zone was set up to pay for streets, parking and utility lines. Mayor Watts wants to know whether it could also pay to keep downtown clean, and a council committee takes up that question Thursday.
The Agenda Committee meets at 8 a.m. Nov. 5 at City Hall to decide where the mayor's Sept. 22 "two-minute pitch" goes next. Staff recommend sending it to a council work session; the other choices are routing it through a city board or folding it into the annual budget process.
A gap since the ambassadors left
The request grows out of a cleaning gap downtown. From January 2024 the city paid a contractor, Block by Block, about $703,303 a year from the general fund to run a Downtown Ambassador pilot that cleaned, power-washed, removed graffiti and helped visitors across 272 acres from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Staff told property owners in 2025 that the money would run out in December 2025 and the program would end, and that power washing, litter pickup and graffiti removal would come less often afterward.
The city tried to replace it with a public improvement district, a special assessment paid by downtown landowners. Owners turned it down: 11 of 14 who answered a 2025 survey opposed paying an added assessment, and nine of 10 polled at a follow-up meeting did not support a district.
Staff dropped the idea in May 2025 because such a district has to be driven by property owners.
What the zone pays for now
The zone, created in 2010 and expanded in 2024, captures the growth in property taxes inside its boundaries. It now runs through 2040 or until it collects $50.2 million. Its plan lists four kinds of eligible projects: parking and transportation, complete streets, support for downtown projects, and utilities and drainage.
An Oct. 9 staff report says adding a cleaning category would first need approval from the zone's board, then a council ordinance after a public hearing advertised in the newspaper at least a week ahead.
