IRON MOUNTAIN — A proposal to again make the Midtown Mall part of Iron Mountain’s Downtown Development Authority apparently doesn’t have enough city council support to go forward.

Mayor Dale Alessandrini pushed for the move Monday but was joined only by council member Mark Wickman in backing a resolution of intent to expand the DDA boundary.

In a voice vote, council members Kyle Blomquist, Ken Clawson and David Farragh rejected the resolution. Council members Cathy Tomassoni and Pam Maule were absent.

Alessandrini claimed the mall has been “riding the coattails of the DDA” since the council granted its request to get out of the district in 2011.

Properties within the DDA pay an additional tax to help organize downtown events, conduct promotions, attract new business and advance beautification and historic preservation. The current DDA levy is 2 mills, or $2 per $1,000 of taxable value.

Midtown Mall, owned by Osborne Properties Limited Partnership, has a taxable value of $2.87 million. A DDA levy, then, would generate about $5,740 annually under the current assessment. Total revenues from the 2-mill DDA levy are estimated at $62,574 in this year’s budget.

Blomquist said his impression from the DDA is an expansion to include the mall is “not a battle that anyone wants to fight.”

Noting some empty storefronts in the mall, Clawson said he doesn’t want to put an additional tax on the current occupants. “It’s just going to cost the people that are still in business,” he said.

Alessandrini said that when mall representatives asked to withdraw from the DDA, the council was told they’d do events and promotions on their own. “They haven’t done anything to draw people in,” he said.

Blomquist said there may be a consensus it was mistake to remove the mall, but there is also some indifference to putting it back in.

If the city were to adopt a resolution of intent, a public hearing would be scheduled and notifications sent to all property owners within the DDA. After approval of an expansion, the council would have to wait at least 60 days to introduce an ordinance to adopt a boundary change.

In addition to Super One Foods, the Midtown Mall directory lists 10 businesses along with a Michigan Secretary of State office and a U.S. Armed Forces recruitment center.

The DDA boundary now follows the corridors of Carpenter, River and Stephenson avenues north from Woodward Avenue just past Brown Street on Carpenter, and north from H Street to Chapin Pit on Stephenson but excluding the mall.