In a message dated 7/5/2007 2:57:22 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
story about the Mt Airy BID Tony's report, says -- in part: Compared to other BIDs, it is small. It consists of both sides of Germantown Avenue from the 6300 block to the 7600 block. Its budget is $115,000 - peanuts compared to the granddaddy of all Philadelphia BIDs, Center City District, with its annual budget of $14 million. The Mt. Airy BID doesn't even have any paid staff. ....... The Mt. Airy BID will concentrate on street-cleaning. ....... The assessment on commercial property owners is 18% of their real estate tax. The average is more than $500 per year. That could be a big bite for a small commercial property owner. ...... Owners of small residential rental properties with four units or fewer will not be assessed. I was going to ask Tony for some clarifications off-list, but why not have the questions and answers open to everybody? Enquiring minds want to know, and all that sort of thing. 1) Some interesting things not quoted above -- mostly in terms of participation and involvement of the stakeholders, who seem to comprise a true "Business Improvement District" since the affected blocks of Germantown Ave is an unambiguous business strip where stakeholders engaged in trade and commerce are in the overwhelming majority. 2) There are 313 properties on the strip from the 6300 through the 7600 block of Germantown Ave -- a few empty lots, some churches, and a garage or two which I can't tell is just somebody's place to park or an auto repair business. But $115,000/313 represents an average of $307 each, not $500 each.Take out, say, 50 and you still have an average of $400, not $500. 3) I don't understand the item saying "Owners of small residential rental properties with four units or fewer will not be assessed." Does this mean that there are buildings on Germantown Ave with no commercial space and five or more apartments that will be taxed? 4) Also, it's a bit difficult to interpret the zoning maps for that area because the streets crossing Germantown Ave aren't numbered. But a close look suggests that the strip is zoned commercial on both sides for about 80% of its length, with about half of the two blocks between Haines & Walnut and a few other spots designated as residential. Of course, if you took out another 50 properties because they were zoned residential, you'd be up to about $500 on the average for the remaining 200 truly business locations. 5) With respect to the item about "the assessment on commercial property owners" -- does this mean that in a building where someone rents a storefront, the owner of the building will be taxed but not the storekeeper? If so, how was the "voting" done -- only owners who would be directly subject to the tax, or everybody, including storekeepers who would end up paying it through an increase in their rent? So, by all indications, this is a true "business improvement district" and one that focuses on sidewalk cleaning in front of commercial occupancies. Nothing at all like the now defunct UCD initiative for UC in which "apartments" were arbitrarily and contrary to the stature identified as businesses. Tony? Al (call me Mr Empirical Evidence) Krigman ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
