Downtowns are important for a community; they serve as reflections of the town and send important signals about the people living there. It is the one place in a community that belongs to everyone. In theory, a small-town downtown is the community’s commercial center of activity. People fondly remember how Downtown Rockdale once vibrantly served that role.
To put it kindly, Downtown Rockdale, made up of 69 properties, is in bad shape. There are neglected or underutilized buildings, properties which pay zero taxes, and absentee owners from out of town.
But first, let’s address the “slum and blight” issue.
The City of Rockdale and the Rockdale MDD are working together to apply for a grant to replace some of the sidewalks in downtown. A condition of the grant is that the City Council designate Downtown as a “Slum and Blight Area.” The council passed such a resolution at its April meeting.
This resolution was not meant to be a statement of policy or force anyone to do anything. It was simply a requirement so that the city can access money to make improvements in our town.
Fifty-two percent of downtown properties can be considered either vacant or half-occupied. Twenty-one of the 69 downtown properties are owned by people outside of Rockdale. Some of these are owned by folks outside of Texas. Thirteen of these 21 properties are either undeveloped or vacant properties.
Fourteen of the 69 properties are exempt from paying property taxes either because they are public buildings (the RMDD office and the library), owned by a non-profit (the Kay Theater and the 1895 building), or owned by a church or religious organization.
The result is that the City of Rockdale earns very little tax revenue from downtown. Downtown Rockdale properties contribute only 3% to the city’s property tax revenue. And, only nine downtown businesses pay city sales tax – about 0.5% of the city’s annual total.
There are a few reasons to be excited about Downtown Rockdale’s future. The 1895 City Hall project looks to be a cultural and dining destination once operational. The Snug bakery, East Bell Taphouse and moving the Farmers’ Market will work to create activity downtown. Once finished, the streetscape project will make a tremendous difference. The MDD expanded the façade grant program to help activate neglected buildings.
So take a long, hard look at Downtown Rockdale. It won’t always look like this. But we are going to have to work our tails off to make it better.
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