Business Improvement District

Info towards creating a Woodstock
Business Improvement District (BID)
"Give us a dollar and we'll earn you a hundred".

What?
In short, WCOCA hopes to put together an entity that will promote all Woodstock via media and special events. Further, to help perimeter business get more visitors and reduce auto traffic, WCOCA would like to contract for circling busses on weekends. Some mini-events would circulate between various perimeter locations throughout the day. BID would help perimeter develop promotions to attract visitors.

How?
If a small amount (less then a dollar a day) is collected from each and every business in the existing commercial district it would yield about $37,000. Collection would be via an add-on to property tax. Bigger properties (businesses) would pay a larger share then smaller business.

Where?
Within the existing commercial district which runs along Route 212 from roughly 375 to the Cinema and extends very roughly 300 feet on either side of Route 212. See Map

First step...
Create a business Plan.
It is important to have this well thought out before making a formal presentation lest people see it as little more then "increasing taxes". I think most business can easily see the value of "promoting" Woodstock. Especially those businesses in the center village area. Much less clear is weather we can create methods of attracting visitors to the perimeter business by various, promotions, events and circling busses and thus convince those business to support creating a BID.
Once we have a well thought out business plan, we should focus on getting support from perimeter business first. This done, getting support from center village businesses should be comparatively easy. (Ultimately, for the referendum, we need support from 51% within the existing commercial district).

WOODSTOCK PROMOTION
Tentative plan by Fern Edison

Woodstock, NY is a special place, and is perceived as such by much of the media. If they (the media) are kept consistently informed about Woodstock events, media coverage will result, and ........

PERIMETER ATTRACTION IDEAS

Food Tastings

Afternoon events at the Bear

Traveling Bands

Guitarist trail (plaques in sidewalk)

Scavenger hunts

Performance Art

Mini Theatre

We need everyone's ideas here.
Please send your Ideas to: Attraction Ideas.

More ideas...
LINKS FROM THE ASSOCIATION OF TOWNS--

Town BIDs

The Arlington District of Poughkeepsie, The Arlington BID is comprised of a group of small business owners, residents, schools and other interested parties located in and around the Arlington District. The primary purpose of the BID is to establish, promote and realize a vision for revitalization, enhancing the community life of the area, the tourist and economic potential of the district, and the general atmosphere of the streets.

Town of Dewitt Business Improvement District (BID)

The Downtown Canandaigua Business Improvement District The Downtown Canandaigua Business Improvement District has been awarded $200,000 from the NYMS Grant Program. These funds are available to property owners within the BID for facade and building renovations. Two public information meetings were held and 30 property owners were in attendance. The deadline to submit applications to the BID office

City BIDs

Downtown Albany Business Improvement District (BID)
.

City of Norwich, Chenango County
The Norwich BID was formed in 1986 by the City of Norwich to help preserve and enhance downtown Norwich. It was one of the first BID’s in New York State. In 1992 the Norwich BID was incorporated as the Norwich Business Improvement District Management Association, Inc. (BIDMA, Inc.). Their goal is to continually improve upon our downtown and its offerings.
From NYC:

STARTING A BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE in NYC
Business Improvement Districts have been important partners in the economic development of New
York City for more than 20 years. From the central business districts to local shopping areas, BIDs
make valuable contributions to the life of our neighborhoods. Establishing a new BID is a serious
effort that involves the work of local businesses, public officials and other community stakeholders.

LEGAL REQUIREMENTS

New York State Consolidated Laws, General Municipal, ARTICLE 19-A
BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS
Contents of the district plan. Local adoption of article . Local legislative powers . District plan . Notice and hearing . Establishment or extension of the district. Review by the state comptroller. Publication; filing; judicial review . Amendments to the district plan . Expense of the district . Tax and debt limitations . Expenditure of district funds. District management association . Cooperative operation and management of business improvement districts . Dissolution . Existing districts . Severability.

Download BID law With items of interest to Woodstock highlighted (76k PDF)

Source of law; caselaw.lp.findlaw.com

This letter will rough out business plan in four main areas.
- Promotion
- Events
- Circling busses
- Extra services (Police, Cleaning, etc).

   It will further go on to explain that money to support BID is added to property tax with each business property in the existing commercial district contributing in proportion to the benefit it's likely to receive. The money collected, by law, can only be used for the BID. Attempts to use BID funds for some other purpose is actually a jail-able offence.
   Woodstock Village Commercial district property has an assessed value of $75,000,000. If BID was created collected (for example) 50¢ per $1000 of assessed value, that would yield $37,500 a year for business district promotion & improvements. 50¢ property tax add on, for example, would cost $240 per year on Larry's house. Well less then a dollar a day and that cost is shared between three business.
   Use of money is decided by a board, the members of which come from, Tenants, owners, and the town. Voting on use of money is also proportional to the size of the businesses. Bigger business, more votes.

When the cost of promotion is shared amongst the whole business community we can accomplish more...... Many businesses may find that this will actually save them money because there is less need of doing their own individual advertising.

Liz is checking with other towns about how they do their business districts. (See links below)

Larry will research busses and professional BID planing organizations. It remains to be seen how far the circling busses may, or may not extend beyond commercial district. (Bearsville? Byrdcliffe? Monastery? Zena?) One big question will be: How far outside the commercial district that subsidizes the bus service will it be acceptable to take visitors? One way to resolve this problem might be to sell ad space on busses to those business out side the commercial district.

Much of the above was discussed at a recent meeting with Jeremy, Barry, Larry, Liz.

One should reasonably expect that creating a BID will be quite a long process with many steps. Because we all have other things to do, much of this research will be done in our spare time.