The Vermont Street downtown parking garage near Lawrence Public Library is seen from the side in this file photo from November 2014.

With the amounts due finalized by the Lawrence City Commission, downtown property owners have to begin making tax payments toward their portion of a $915,000 bill for parking near the Lawrence Public Library.

The Library Parking Garage Benefit District was established in 2012, and Tuesday’s meeting offered the last public hearing before the costs to the city and downtown property owners were adopted as city ordinances.

Only one of the commissioners was a part of the original decision in 2012 to establish the special taxing district, but with the parking garage built and operating, taking the final step was agreed upon with a 4-1 vote.

“I guess to me, we’re kind of continuing on decisions that have been made before, and we’re going to leave some stuff for others folks to do,” said Commissioner Stuart Boley at Tuesday’s meeting. “So I think we just need to go ahead and do it.”

Commissioner Matthew Herbert agreed, adding, “We’ve got to pay for it.”

The district charges a new assessment to downtown property owners to fund the project that added another level of parking to the garage next to the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St. The extra level provided 72 additional parking spaces to the garage. Downtown property owners are responsible for paying about $430,000 of the project’s $915,000 cost, with portions assessed based on a property’s square footage.

When the district was originally proposed, owners of 23 of the 194 privately owned properties in the downtown district signed a petition objecting to the assessments. Mayor Mike Amyx was the only commissioner who took part in the original decision to establish the district in 2012, and the lone vote against it. Amyx, who operates a barbershop downtown, made it clear his feelings hadn’t changed.

“Well, the garage is built; it’s got to be paid for,” said Amyx, who voted against the two ordinances presented Tuesday. “It’s still not right.”

As part of the meeting, commissioners received written and oral objections to the special taxing district. It was the second time for downtown property owners to provide input, subsequent to the initial protest period when the district was proposed in 2012.

In addition to one protest letter sent to the commission and enclosed as part of the agenda, the city’s Public Works Director Charles Soules said that the city has directly received a couple of phone calls and letters. Soules said some of the protests noted that the garage was several blocks away from the property in question. Soules said the public process, though, had been followed.

“The benefit district was formed back in 2012, and we went through this same process,” Soules said. “We had public hearings, we had notifications, (former City Manger) David Corliss and myself went to several downtown Lawrence meetings.”

Changes were made as part of that process, and the ordinances passed Tuesday included adjustments commissioners made to the deal in 2012 to address issues brought up during the protest period. Those include exempting downtown churches, nonprofits, and properties that provide for their own parking. The portion of the taxes the city is going to pay now includes those assessments.

Steve Nowak, director of the Douglas County Historical Society and the Watkins Museum of History, said that if the museum had been forced to pay the assessment, it would have been a challenge.

“Just to give a sense of that proportion, the assessment is roughly half of our entire program’s budget for a full year, and not the kind of thing that we can, with some kinds of special projects, raise separate money for or find a grant to cover,” Nowak said. “So I just want to reinforce the importance that that kind of exemption has for an organization like us.”

In other business, the commission:

• Received an update from a downtown grocery store committee that has been meeting for the past four years. Members of the committee, a local organization not run by the city, said they have been in contact with developers and grocers and are in support of a project that is expected to more forward soon. That project would convert the former Borders bookstore site at Seventh and New Hampshire streets into a multistory residential and commercial building that would house a grocery store on the ground floor.

• Voted to defer its decision regarding the proposed Parks and Recreation Sponsorship Policy. The policy would establish guidelines for naming rights and other sponsorships in support of Parks and Recreation programs and facilities. The commission agreed that the topic should be deferred in order to first have a public hearing for community input.