PHOENIX (AP) - An appellate court has upheld a Maricopa County Superior Court judge's ruling that creation of a special business-improvement district for downtown Phoenix was subject to a 2016 state law changing how such districts are formed.
The state Court of Appeals' ruling Thursday upholds Judge Daniel Kiley's ruling that a retroactivity clause in the law applies to the Roosevelt Business Improvement District, which the city approved two months before the law took effect.
It changed the district formation process by newly requiring that the petition to form the district be signed by owners of over half of the properties in the proposed district and by property owners for more than half of the assessed value.
The district was intended to authorize a property tax for services such as marketing and beautification.
