Over a year of research and planning by the Farmingdale Chamber of Commerce about the possible creation of a Business Improvement District (BID) for Farmingdale is beginning to produce some tangible results. The Farmingdale Village Board at its May 19 regular meeting passed a resolution to allow the chamber's BID Steering Committee to submit a formal plan for the creation of the entity.

If eventually approved, the BID would comprise a central retail area of the village - both sides of Main Street from Melville Road to Fulton Street, and Conklin Street from Secatogue Avenue to the intersection of Fulton and Conklin - and would be a mechanism authorized by state law to collect additional fees from property owners within it. The 12-member BID Steering Committee, representing various types of property owners within the district, would direct it. The proposed BID budget of approximately $62,000 would primarily be spent on marketing, but also would support retail recruitment, maintenance to supplement that provided by the Village of Farmingdale and administration.

For each type of property located within the district, the BID payment formula would be the following: Commercial - 2 percent of village assessed value, business zoned residential - .5 percent of village assessed value, and privately owned vacant land - .3 percent of village assessed value. Nonprofit, tax exempt properties, such as churches, would be exempt.

The Village of Farmingdale would act as the agent to collect the fees, but the money would be spent entirely by the BID Steering Committee. After establishment, the BID would become a nonprofit corporation.

The village resolution allowing the submission of the formal plan followed a series of public information meetings held by the chamber about the proposed BID in late April.

"It went fairly well," MaryAnn Paras, president of the chamber and chairperson of the BID Steering Committee said last week, commenting on the meetings. "People came in and were a little bit skeptical, but they left with their questions answered." She added that were was no adamant opposition voiced at the meetings, although there was some debate about appropriate boundaries of the BID area.

In accordance with New York state law regarding BIDs (General Municipal Article 19-A), the BID is adopted by enacting a local law, and therefore many steps are necessary in order to form the entity. The first two steps - public outreach by the BID Steering Committee, and the village's adoption of a resolution to authorize the preparation of a formal plan - have been completed.

The remaining steps that are necessary in accordance with the state law are as follows: the BID Steering Committee would submit the formal plan, known as the District Plan to the Village Clerk's office (the steering committee expects to achieve this within the next two weeks); the village would adopt a resolution scheduling a public hearing (the committee hopes this will occur by June); ten to thirty days prior to the public hearing, the village would mail notice of hearing to owners, tenants, and any others who receive tax notices for affected properties; the village would hold the public hearing (the committee hopes this will occur by July); after the village's public hearing, property owners in the BID area have 30 days to file objections using a form provided by the Village Clerk; thirty days after the close of the hearing, the village may adopt a local law establishing the BID, unless at least 51 percent of the property owners reject it (the committee hopes the adoption of the law will occur by August). After the adoption of the BID, it would be reviewed by the New York state Comptroller's office. If approved by the comptroller, the local law regarding the BID would become effective immediately (the committee hopes this will occur by November). The steering committee hopes to have the BID finalized before the end of 1998, so that collection of property assessments may take place in June of 1999.

The BID Steering Committee is also working with Operation Downtown, a program arranged by Nassau County which provides experts in giving technical marketing assistance to downtown areas. According to Barbara J. Cohen, a consultant hired by the Farmingdale Chamber of Commerce to work on the BID, Operation Downtown, which is at no cost to the village, will help defray the costs of the BID's initial marketing and research. Therefore, she noted, it will allow the BID Steering Committee to devote more resources elsewhere, such as buying advertising. The marketing and research, she said, will involve establishing an identity of the town for marketing purposes, and evaluation of parking and signs. "It really allows them to sort of hit the ground running once the BID gets established," she said. She added that a committee of local community leaders organized by the village would have input on the establishment of the town identity.