The did not think it was fair to be paying the same rate but getting different levels of service.

So the alliance, a marketing group created to attract shoppers to downtown businesses, has come up with a new membership plan.

It calls for a three-tiered assessment, with the businesses that benefit most from the alliance's services paying the most to belong. Those services include cleaning sidewalks, hosting special events to attract shoppers and launching advertising campaigns to promote downtown businesses.

"It won't satisfy all the critics, but it satisfies the criticism," Municipal Council Chairman George O. Stewart said Monday. The nonprofit group is not a city department, but the city is responsible for creating the assessment mechanism.

The council had initial discussions earlier this month on the plan and will consider the matter again Sept. 18. That's when it will decide whether to authorize sending out notice of a newly created business-improvement district.

In May, the council voted to suspend the flat assessment after the complaints by business owners. Businesses previously were assessed 0.0014 percent of their property value, regardless of how close they were to the center of the central business district - the University Avenue/Center Street intersection.

Bill Bancroft, chairman of the alliance's executive board, said the new system further addresses the fairness question by also assessing city property.

The city's payment, which is still being negotiated, would make up for the reduced rates charged to some businesses and allow the alliance to meet its nearly $170,000 annual budget.

Stewart said critics had complained that the city was reaping the benefits of a revitalized downtown without making contributions toward the effort.

Bancroft, despite embracing the new plan, said he did not think the original arrangement was inherently unfair. Although some businesses might not receive the same direct benefits as others, he said all benefited.

"If the next street to you is really grungy and a mess, what is going to happen to your property value? It will drop," Bancroft said.

Salt Lake City's Downtown Business Alliance assesses its members similarly to Provo's original plan and has no plans to change.

Executive Director Bob Farrington said members of his capital city alliance are charged the same assessment regardless of location, and they reap the same overall benefits of a healthy downtown - even if they don't get the same individual benefits.

Salt Lake City assesses businesses at a rate of 0.0015 percent.

Farrington said that Salt Lake's downtown is more homogenous than Provo's, and if the alliance were to expand - say to businesses around Trolley Square, several blocks to the east of downtown - some owners could argue for a graduated assessment.

dmeyers@sltrib.com