After yet another push to get an Old Town Business Improvement District (BID) off the ground in Old Town failed, business advocacy group Old Town Business is shutting down.
Old Town Business was launched 40 years ago and helps to oversee advocacy, events and marketing for shops around Old Town. The group was one of the driving forces behind the latest in a series of efforts to launch a more formal, taxpayer-funded effort to take over for marketing and representing Old Town Businesses.
Sisyphus’ boulder is back at the bottom of the hill: the Old Town BID proposal has been killed yet again.
Boyd Walker from the Anti-BID Coalition said in an email that City of Alexandria officials confirmed the vote and that the BID will not be moving forward:
The Alexandria City Council unanimously approved new outreach guidelines for the potential creation of a Business Improvement District (BIDs) in Old Town on Tuesday night.
Without buy-in from 60% of impacted property owners, previous efforts to get BIDs started in Old Town failed. Consequently, City Council on Tuesday night approved the amended rules stipulating that property owners will now be sent petitions via certified mail, and that their non-response within 30 days will be counted just as if they vote in opposition.
An amendment to the Business Improvement District (BID) guidelines that could make it easier to pass is headed to City Council for review next week.
The idea behind a BID is that it would be an organization that could advocate and host programs and events that would draw people to the relevant area as well as providing other services.
(Updated 3:40 p.m.) To get a business improvement district (BID) approved for Old Town, proponents will need the support of 60% of properties in the proposed zone. But a new change could cut property owners who don’t engage at all out of that 60% requirement.
City Council member John Chapman said after outreach was done for the Old Town BID there were over 200 property owners that never responded either in favor or against the proposal.
The team behind the proposed Old Town Business Improvement District (BID) is giving itself a few more months to get the project the support it needs.
Per new guidelines approved by the City Council last year, the BID proposal will need support from 60% of the properties within the district’s boundaries, which mostly runs along King Street.
With the clock running down on a rushed timeline, Old Town Business (OTB) is conducting more outreach sessions today, Friday, on its proposed business improvement district.
The group conducted information sessions yesterday (Thursday) and scheduled one for this morning and another for 1 p.m. along the ALX Community Waterfront at 201 N. Union Street.
Earlier this week, Old Town Business debuted new plans for a Business Improvement District along King Street.
The new effort comes after multiple earlier efforts to get a BID launched for Old Town, but BID proponents highlighted at a meeting earlier this week that this effort will be different.
After years of doing marketing and advocating for local businesses, members of the volunteer-run group Old Town Business say they’re tired — and ready for a Business Improvement District (BID) to take over.
In the first public meeting about a possible BID, leaders of Old Town Business made a case for the district as the only sustainable path forward for businesses running along King Street “from the rails to the water.”
Time and time again, a group of business owners has pushed the Old Town Business Improvement District (BID) boulder up the hill, only to have it roll back down again.
Now, a group called Old Town Business is trying — again — to get the boulder to the top.
Alexandria’s City Council recently approved guidelines for the creation of new Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), self-taxed commercial areas where a new organization could be dedicated to turning the area into a commercial destination.
The approval comes five years after a proposed BID in Old Town divided local businesses and was ultimately sent back to the drawing board by the City Council.
