QUESTION
How can residential neighborhoods establish Business Improvement Districts (BIDs)?
0:28:32
·
3 min
Deputy Commissioner Calvin T. Brown notes that current Business Improvement District (BID) legislation primarily requires commercial property owners for establishment, indicating a need for further discussion to adapt BIDs for residential areas.
- Council Member Erik D. Bottcher expresses concern that residential neighborhoods in Council District 3 are left out of BID coverage, impacting their access to enhanced services.
- Bottcher highlights the West Village BID as a potential model for residential areas wanting to establish a BID.
- The current legislation for forming a BID heavily relies on contributions from commercial property owners, posing difficulties for predominantly residential areas.
- Brown suggests the possibility of reviewing and discussing the mechanisms for including residential areas in BIDs, using the West Village BID as a case study.
Erik D. Bottcher
0:28:32
I'd love to get your thoughts on big coverage for neighborhoods that are more residential in nature than commercial.
0:28:40
In Council District 3, we have a lot of bids and We we love our bids.
0:28:45
We have the Hudson Square bid, the West Village bid, the Village Alliance, the meat packing bid, We've got the Garmin District Bid, the Hudson Yards Yeah.
0:28:56
HK Bid.
0:28:57
We've got the Times Square Alliance, the 34th partnership.
0:29:01
They all do a great job.
0:29:03
But we have a lot of residents who aren't included in a bid area and they want big coverage for their neighborhoods because they see the difference in services when you cross the street.
0:29:16
Into an area that's covered by a bid.
0:29:19
You get better sanitation.
0:29:23
You've got landscaping with tree pits and flower baskets from the light pools.
0:29:28
You have new waste baskets.
0:29:31
You have augmented homeless outreach services, small business support.
0:29:37
So much that comes along with a bit.
0:29:40
In Chelsea, we don't have a bit for the largely residential area of Chelsea and we hear year after year folks residents coming forward and they would like big coverage in Chelsea.
0:29:55
Challenges, we don't have like big commercial anchored tenants that could help with the formation of the bid.
0:30:04
Google, for example, they're already included in the meat packing bid.
0:30:10
In in prior years, I had heard from the the prior administration that residential neighborhoods shouldn't necessarily have bids that it should be for more commercial neighborhoods.
0:30:24
I'd love to get your thoughts on that, and maybe some suggestions about how residents could form bids if they're not in a primarily commercial neighborhood.
Calvin T. Brown
0:30:38
Well, as you know, council member, the the way that the bid legislation is structured, it it really does require commercial property owners.
0:30:47
So that would have to be a a a very full full of discussion to discuss what that mechanics will look like.
0:30:55
Right now, the way that bid legislation is structured, it really does require a significant amount of commercial property owners to contribute to the assessment.
0:31:08
So there's no mechanism at this point right now of the there's some bids, I mean, takes a step back that do assess residential properties, but not at the level that they assess commercial properties.
0:31:19
So we're happy to have follow-up on the discussion later on.
Erik D. Bottcher
0:31:24
One model would be the West Village bid which is in a in a what you could think of as a primarily residential area, the 7th Avenue South, area of the village, not your average bid.
0:31:42
They've been able to cobble together enough commercial buildings to make it work.
0:31:49
I would love to discuss with you a way of and maybe we could do some public awareness out in our districts about if folks want to follow the model of the West Village bid and sort of cobble together something that might pencil out how they would proceed with that.
Calvin T. Brown
0:32:09
Yeah.
0:32:09
We can definitely discuss that, and and the West Village bit is is fairly new.
0:32:13
Definitely a case study that we can continue to analyze.