Village Discussing BID

Business Improvement District Proposed by Chamber

By Andrea Halpern

The Farmingdale Village Board is discussing a proposal by the Farmingdale Chamber of Commerce for a new Business Improvement District (BID) which would encompass all of Main Street and the portion of Conklin Street that lies between Secatogue Avenue and Fulton Street.

The chamber's proposal, which was presented at a village board meeting this Monday, includes an annual budget of approximately $62,000, which would fund retail recruitment, marketing and promotion, special maintenance and sanitation, and administration for the defined area. The budget would come from additional taxes that would be levied on the property owners within the BID area based on individual property value assessments.

MaryAnn Paras, president of the Farmingdale Chamber of Commerce has indicated that a focus of the BID would be the marketing and promotion of downtown Farmingdale, which the area encompasses. In accordance with state law, she has noted, once established the BID would become a nonprofit entity separate from the chamber. The chamber's proposal indicates that taxes would be levied by the village, and would be spent entirely by the BID.

"What we're looking to do here is enhance what the village has done and continues to do," Paras said as she presented the proposal to the village board.

This was the first time that the chamber has presented the proposal to the village board, which is part of the process of creating a BID that is outlined by New York State law. In response to the presentation, Village Mayor Joseph M. Trudden told the chamber that the board would discuss the matter in private and address the issue again at the next regular village board meeting, which is scheduled for Feb. 9. "It think we're going to have to sit down as a board and discuss this, and then invite you back again," he told the members of the chamber's BID Steering Committee who were present.

However, after discussing the issue in private immediately after the meeting, the village board met with Paras again sooner than that. The village met with Paras Wednesday, telling her they think the idea is a positive one, but that the chamber should get the support of the property owners before proceeding with the plans, according to Village Clerk-Treasurer John Giordano. "We told them that we approve of the objectives, and that they should go out and solicit approval from the landowners. If the landowners want to pay, then we will start the process of forming it," he said.

Giordano added that the village would like to find a way to fund the BID that does not require collecting additional taxes. One such way, he said, would be to obtain grant money. "[As] a board that hasn't raised taxes in 10 years, we want to be cautious about how this is done," he noted. He added that the board wanted the chamber to fine-tune the budget of the BID before presenting it at public hearings.

Under the chamber proposal presented at Monday's meeting, of the approximately 140 taxable properties within the proposed Farmingdale BID area, about half would be taxed under $300 for the BID, while about two-thirds would be taxed less than $500, according to a report prepared by Barbara J. Cohen, a Murray Hill Station, New York-based real estate consultant hired by the chamber. About 28 percent of the properties would generate less than $100 each in tax revenue for the BID, while about 2 percent would generate over $1,500 each, according to the report, which was part of a six-month feasibility study conducted by Cohen for the chamber's BID Steering Committee. Cohen has also served as a consultant for the successful creation of a BID in both Glen Cove and Pitkin Avenue, Brooklyn.

Residents in the BID area would be taxed less than business owners. While the payment rate for commercial property would be 2 percent of Farmingdale Village assessed value, business-zoned residential property would be taxed at five-tenths of a percent of the Farmingdale Village assessed value, while privately owned vacant land would be three-tenths of a percent of it. Not-for-profit tax exempt entities would be exempt from the BID payment.

In a fact sheet about BID provided to the village Monday, the chamber noted that a BID is "an organizing and financing mechanism used by property and business owners to determine the future of their retail, commercial and industrial areas." It continued, "The BID is based on state and local law which permits property and business owners to band together to use the village's tax collection powers to "assess" themselves. These funds are collected by the village and returned in entirety to the BID and used for purchasing supplemental services (e.g. Retail Recruitment, Maintenance, Promotions, Special Events, etc.) beyond those services provided by the Village. In brief, the program is one of self-help through self-assessment."

Some of the questions asked by village officials about the proposal Monday included one by Patrick Mielo, an attorney for the village, about the procedure for approving a BID. Paras noted that, according to state law, if at least 51 percent of the property owners within the BID area do not vote no, the proposal passes. According to the law, those who do not vote, vote yes by default, she added.

Mielo asked another question, "What checks are there on the BID to stop it from raising its assessed valuation each year?" In response to this, Cohen noted that, according to state law, the BID budget (which is equal to the assessed valuation) cannot exceed one-fifth of the total general municipal taxes collected by the village.

Giordano noted at Monday's meeting that there is already a BID in Farmingdale Village, and that the chamber could save time and expense by modifying the boundaries of the existing BID, rather than forming a new one. The existing BID, he said, includes all of Main Street and the portion of Conklin Street from Secatogue Avenue to Nostrand Avenue. The existing BID is currently inactive.

The chamber seeks to complete the creation of the BID by the spring of 1998. In addition to public meetings and approval by the property owners within the BID area, the process requires the following: a Village of Farmingdale resolution authorizing the BID Steering Committee to prepare a district plan describing the program, a presentation to the village board at a public hearing, village legislation establishing the Farmingdale BID, approval from the New York State Comptroller's Office, the preparation of billing statements for BID assessments by the BID Steering Committee and the village.