Asheville City Council creates downtown Business Improvement District

In its second and final vote, Asheville City Council approved a downtown Business Improvement District amid impassioned dissent. A small crowd gathered on the street to protest before the meeting, accompanied by a marching band whose drums could be heard from the meeting room. After the vote, the sound crested from the downtown street below in a furious blare.

At the meeting, council approved a resolution to guide the request for proposals for a contractor to run the BID. The BID vote passed 6-1, with only council member Kim Roney opposing. It sets the BID boundaries and establishes the tax rate. Council adopted the resolution along the same divide.

BIDs, or Municipal Service Districts, as defined by state statute, are a mechanism to supplement city services within a defined area. It will leverage an 8-cent tax (per $100 of assessed value) on downtown property owners to fund additional services for the city’s central business district. The BID is estimated to generate a $1.25 million budget, which will be approved annually by City Council.

There are 66 BIDs with a “placemaking focus” in North Carolina. For some, it felt like a foregone conclusion that the vote would pass following the 5-1 approval in the first required vote a month earlier (council member Sheneika Smith was absent).

Attempts to get more involved with the process have gone mostly unanswered. All nearly 20 public commenters at the June 11 meeting spoke in opposition to the BID.

Concerns were similar to those heard throughout the process: displacement of the city’s homeless populations, uncertainty about what shape the BID would ultimately take, reluctance to see another unelected board wield taxpayer dollars, and further “privatization” of public spaces.

Despite new parameters set in the resolution, speaker Barron Northrup said the unanswered problems within the proposal “compound.”

Before the discussion, Mayor Esther Manheimer said members of the steering committee and other organizations were in support but would not be there to speak after a committee member’s car was vandalized last week.

The initial BID proposal was brought by the Asheville Downtown Association and Chamber of Commerce, with “clean and safe” the slogan at its center. The Chamber contracted with an outside firm to conduct a feasibility study and to prepare the statutorily required BID operational plan.

The BID approval came the same night as that City Council passed its $250.9 million budget, which included a .63-cent property tax increase. “It’s a lot coming all at once,” Griffin said.

The resolution was drafted by council member Maggie Ullman in the month since the initial vote. It was created with input from other council members and community stakeholders. Much of it is intended to ensure “public accountability.”

This means provisions that would ensure the BID service provider complies with all public record and open meetings laws. It can be looked at as pressure washing and litter cleanup, she said, but also as having a more active presence downtown.

The original proposal floated a board weighted toward large property owners. The new resolution proposes a committee of 17 voting members to serve three-year terms.

Along with safety, hospitality, and cleaning services, it names “special projects” among its services, including beautification, capital improvements, parking infrastructure, and landscaping, Ullman said.

Council will be responsible for voting on both the tax rate and budget. The service provider will be required to report to council at least annually. “If the BID is not working out as well as we hoped, it could effectively be canceled by any future council,” council member Sage Turner said. “There is going to be chances to alter this, to improve it, to grow upon it, whatever that may look like.”