Downtown business owners soon will decide if they’re willing to pay an extra fee to help keep Chattanooga’s core business district cleaner and safer.
While we see the benefit for the business owners and potentially for all those who daily inhabit downtown, we have many questions about the implementation of such a fee, what it will cover and how much the affected businesses will be involved in how the fee is used.
We imagine those who own properties have as many or more questions.
Sometime this month, the owners of some 268 parcels of land in the designated area – Riverfront Parkway to 11th Street and U.S. Highway 27 to Cherry Street – will receive petitions asking them whether they support the implementation of a business improvement district (BID) designation and the accompanying fee.
That fee for commercial and nonprofit landowners would be 9 cents per square foot plus $4.95 per linear foot of lot frontage. For residential property owners, it would be $150 per unit. It would raise $1 million annually.
The fee would not be optional, though governments cannot be compelled to pay. However, the county and city are already on board, said Kim White, president and CEO of River City Co., which has offered to manage the BID.
If approved by the majority of business owners representing two-thirds of the combined value of the properties – potentially a minority of businesses in the area – the City Council would need to vote on the proposal to implement it.
Services planned to improve the designated area could start as soon as next year, officials said. The district would be in place for 10 years, but it could be reviewed in five years.
The attempt is not the first time a BID has been suggested for Chattanooga. In 2003, River City proposed one for the 600, 700 and 800 blocks of Market Street. It would have taxed property owners 30 cents per $100 of assessed value, would have been used largely for streetscaping and would have expired after five years.
Although it was not implemented, then-City Councilman Ron Littlefield said at the time such a proposal had been discussed for downtown areas for years.
So, what is $1 million per year expected to bring to the landowners?
Cleaner sidewalks and no graffiti were suggested by photos offered by Progressive Urban Management Associates, which had been brought in to work with business owners and others on the BID, at a meeting Wednesday introducing the proposed district.
“Ambassadors” to deal with the homeless and panhandlers – presumably to direct them to agencies where they might receive help – also was mentioned. The “ambassadors,” it was said, also would act as “eyes and ears” on crime.
The city, heretofore responsible for keeping downtown clean and safe, is expected to make a fixed contribution to the BID and to commit a base level of services – such as police presence – to it.
About a fifth of the fund, officials said, would go to beautification, parking management, promotions or signage.
If we were the affected landowners, here are some questions we’d want answers to:
* Will the fee be the same for the entire 10-year period?
* What accommodations can be made about the fee if a small business owner is currently just meeting his expenses?
* How often could we expect our sidewalks to be cleaned?
* What if we liked our graffiti?
* What percentage more of police officers, if any, will be in the designated area than are typically there now?
* What say do individual business have in a board that would be chosen to oversee the BID?
* How will parking management improve the lack of parking in the BID?
* Do the “ambassadors” work at night, and to where will they direct the homeless or panhandlers if helpful agencies are closed at the time?
* Does the BID board have authority to overrule current city signage ordinances?
* Will those who pay more in fees be entitled to more promotions?
Perhaps the affected landowners have had all of their questions answered already or will be able to have them answered by the time all of the petitions are in. We think BID proponents owe this to the property owners.
All those who come downtown already should expect to find a clean and safe area in which to work, play and shop. If the fee is acceptable to landowners – and we wish a higher percentage had to sign off on it – if a process is in place for effective give and take between landowners and the BID board, and if panhandlers and the homeless are treated humanely, we see no reason it couldn’t be a boon for downtown.