CS for SB 564 - Neighborhood Improvement Districts

• Renames the "Safe Neighborhoods Act" to the "Neighborhoods Improvement Act" and revises legislative findings to broaden focus from crime prevention to general neighborhood improvement, including public infrastructure and utilities.

• Eliminates requirements for neighborhood improvement districts to notify the Department of Legal Affairs; transfers registration duties to the Department of Economic Opportunity only.

• Authorizes local governments to create neighborhood improvement districts through a standard ordinance (rather than a planning ordinance) and allows districts to issue bonds, levy up to 2 mills of ad valorem taxes, and collect special assessments upon freeholder referendum approval.

• Removes provisions related to the Safe Neighborhoods Program, crime prevention through environmental design, defensible space, and community policing innovations; eliminates definitions specific to crime prevention strategies.

• Repeals six obsolete statutes related to the Safe Neighborhoods Program and enterprise zone funding, and restricts Neighborhood Preservation and Enhancement Districts and Councils from being created after June 30, 2013.