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Businesses in light railwork areawil get aidBy Art ThomasonThe Republic I azcentral.com

Mesa is planning to provide finanliataid and other assistance to businesses dis-rupted by construction that begins nextyear for the 3.1-mile extension of lightrail.

City executives and staff are stillsmoothing details, but about 175 busi-nesses along Main Street, from the Syca-more Street station in west Mesa to MesaDrive, would be eligible for up to $2,500 inannual deductions from their utility bills,according to the concept unveiled Thurs-day during a City Council study session.

The approximately $200 million light-rail line will require about 40land acquisi-tions to accommodate right of way, tracks,stations and other infrastructure. Mostwould be for only small slivers of land.. Urban planners and some business

owners expect that the project, whencompleted, will energize Main Streetbusinesses by pouring hundreds of light-rail commuters a week on the doorsteps ofshops, restaurants and service outlets.

The business-relief program, whichhas received verbal support from CityCouncil members, evolved after monthsof brainstorming sessions among city eco-nomic development and electric utilityexecutives and Terry Benelli, executivedirector of the Neighborhood EconomicDevelopment Corporation, to find a wayto help small businesses bridge setbacksgenerated by light-rail construction overthe nextfive years. NEDCO is anon-profitthat provides financing for smallbusinessand community development projects.

The program is part of a public-privatepartnership that will be administered byNEDCO to qualifying businesses.

NEDCO will also contract with consult-ants to provide technical assistance to af-fected businesses.

The city's economic development of-fice and Valley Metro, which oversees theregional transit system, will align the pro-gram with other business assistance en-terprises.

Mayor Scott Smith called it "a creative

way to soften the blow," but wondered if itwould be enough to reimburse businessesfor the financial hardships.

Benelli said that she and other creatorsofthe program would evaluate the aid be-fore returning to the council this fall witha final draft. She said they proposed fund-ing it with utility revenue because 70 petcent of businesses along the light-railroute are within the city's electric servicearea.

Under the current plan, assistancewould cap at $2,500 annually per cus-tomer during construction and would beapplied directly to the business' monthlybill for electricity.

Benelli said Main Street businesses be-tween Sycamore and Alma School Roadare not eligible for financial assistancebecause they are outside the city utilityarea, but they qualify for other assistancesuch as accounting, financial reporting,marketing and sociai media, informationand technology, and human resources.

Smith and City Manager Chris Bradysaid the program doesn't appear to poselegal problems because the asiistancewould come from profits generated by thecity-owned electric utility - a self-sus-taining enterprise - and would be basedon specific losses incurred by the businesses.

Frank McRae, director of the city's En-ergy Resources Department, said about$t0 million a year from the utility's $34million in gross revenue is transferred toMesa's general fund.

Brady said the program's final draftwould have to remain flexible to accom-modate a variety of businesses in terms oftheir size, number of employees andlosses incurred from construction.

Benelli said that she and the economicdevelopment office are marketing theprogram through visits to businesses andsocial media such as Facebook.

"Social media seems to be everybody'shot button," she said.

"Every summer expenses for thesebusinesses go up and revenue declines,"she said. "It's essential that the city mini-mize that impact."

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