By Wafir Salih | wsalih@alextimes.com
Alexandria City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to amend the guidelines for establishing a Business Improvement District in Old Town.
The establishment of a BID would provide Old Town Business, the group leading the initiative, with dedicated funds to enhance marketing efforts. Services a BID would provide include organizing community events, establishing an ambassador program and providing businesses with support programs as well as advocacy, according to the organization’s website.
If implemented, the proposed BID would impose an additional 10-cent tax per $100 of assessed value on property owners that fall within the BID boundaries. This new tax would be on top of the regular tax rate of $1.135 per $100 of assessed value for fiscal year 2025 that all Alexandria property owners must pay.
State law requires an affirmative “yes” vote from 60% of property owners within proposed BID boundaries in order for a BID to be implemented. These new amendments, which were presented by Assistant City Manager Julian Gonsalves at the meeting Tuesday, would allow the city to exclude commercial property owners from the count if they do not respond within 60 days from the time the certified mail is sent. This adjustment is expected to make it easier to meet the threshold.
During the legislative meeting, Councilor Sarah Bagley voiced her support for the amendments, but also urged those opposed to the BID to formally respond rather than remain silent.
“If you want this to not happen, you need to proactively vote no,” Bagley said.
Brandon Byrd, owner of Goodies Frozen Custard & Treats in Old Town, said Council voting to change the rules on the 60% threshold is indicative of the BID’s unpopularity.
“You created the rules, now you’re changing the rules. You have all the resources behind you in your favor and up until now you have not been successful. What’s the problem?” Byrd said in an interview with the Times.
Byrd said businesses don’t want the BID, despite extensive efforts on the city’s part to promote the initiative.
“You got all the major landowners, developers, restaurateurs – you’ve got the ear of City Council, you have everything in your favor. … A $100,000 of taxpayer dollars BID expert consultant was hired to advise the City of Alexandria and Old Town Business Association on how to achieve getting the BID across the finish line, and yet you still must change the rules to only benefit the proponents.”
The idea of establishing a BID in Old Town is not new. A previous push to establish one in the area was made back in 2017. Despite those efforts, an ordinance to establish a BID never came to a vote.
Former Mayor Allison Silberberg, who was in office at the time the last initiative failed and opposed the BID both in 2017 and now, said excluding non-responsive property owners would set an anti-democratic precedent.
“Changing the voting rules to achieve a desired outcome is absurd and is anti-democratic,” Silberberg said. “It’s a tactic to find a way to reach the required 60% threshold for the BID. This will further erode the public trust and how the city does business.”
Amy Rutherford, an Old Town Business board member and owner of Red Barn Mercantile, Penny Post and Pippin Toy Co., expressed her support for the BID in an interview with the Times and acknowledged that while the additional tax would impact her, the benefits would far outweigh the costs.
“[At Penny Post,] that would be about $1,300 for me annually. I would need a total of 70 new or returning customers to come to my store to make up that cost. 70, that’s it. In 365 days to get 70 people to come through my door, I believe that this organization could do that two, three, four, five times,” Rutherford said.
Rutherford noted that Old Town Business hosts events to generate foot traffic to local businesses in the area, but a BID would allow them to expand the scope and number of events.
Byrd said the proposed additional 10-cent tax per $100 assessed value would harm small businesses like his.
“There’s only two options: either I absorb the cost or I pass the cost on. That’s really your only two options,” Byrd said.
Byrd said there’s a limit to how much customers will be willing to pay for a cup of custard.
“There is a ceiling for what I can charge for a cup of frozen custard. I mean, to tack on another 14 or 10%? Imagine having to pass that on to the customer, and now, in order for you to turn a profit, you’ve got to charge $12 or $14,” Byrd said. “At some point, something’s got to give.”
Byrd referred to the events that Old Town Business has hosted in the past and said he hasn’t benefited from them.
“They literally go right past Goodies. We’ve never been included or asked to be included. … What’s going to inspire them to do something different? Before you were using your own money, now you’ve got a million-dollar pot of money. It’s like the fox watching the hen house,” Byrd said.
Boyd Walker, a local property owner who owns eight Airbnb’s in the area, argued that not counting the votes of non-responsive property owners as “no” votes to reach the 60% threshold would be anti-democratic. He also runs the coalition opposing the BID, which has created a petition which has garnered about 150 signatures from property owners.
“You don’t have an election and then say, ‘Well if you don’t vote it’s actually a vote for me because you know you decided not to vote.’ That’s not the way democracy works,” Walker said.
To gauge support for the proposed BID, a mailer was sent out in February 2023 to parcel owners in Old Town. The Times reviewed a copy of the mailer, which specifically asked recipients to return it if they supported the formation of a BID. The mailer, however, seemingly provided no instructions for those opposed to the measure.
“To the extent that you support the proposed OTB-BISD, please execute the enclosed Petition… and return the executed petition as soon as possible if you support the establishment of the OTB-BISD,” the letter reads.
Walker said many business owners to his knowledge have ignored the mailer and did so because they oppose the BID.
“A lot of people who I talked to a year ago said, ‘Look, I’m not supportive of this. But I’m not going to send in my form, I just threw it in the trash,’” Walker said. “I mean, you can’t count folks like that.”
Rutherford challenged the assumption that non-responsive property owners are implicitly opposed to the BID and argued that their silence may indicate neutrality.
“We do have plenty of businesses here in town whose business wants it, but their property owners won’t even take our calls. They won’t answer us,” Rutherford said. “So, they’re sort of saying, ‘I don’t oppose it, but I don’t also support it. I’m fairly neutral.’”
Byrd sent a letter to Council on May 25 where he laid out why he opposed the new amendments to the BID guidelines.
“Isn’t silence the equivalent to lack of interest or support for the proposed BID and to pay higher taxes?” Byrd wrote. “Please explain to me, how a property owner that doesn’t respond to the BIDs request should be penalized by having their vote removed from counting against that 60% threshold that had been previously approved?”
Wayne Fisher, owner of Wayne Fisher’s American Design, said he opposes the BID and questioned the rationale behind the taxing district map.
“If you look at a map of who they’re taxing and who they’re not, it looks sort of like they just threw darts at a plot of the city and said, ‘Oops, landed on 301. Oops, didn’t land here. Oh, here’s one that landed on the border of two buildings. Let’s tax them both.’ I don’t know how they came up with this,” Fisher said.
Walker recalled the prior attempts to establish a BID in 2017 and 2023 and likened the measure to the undead.
“One of my friends calls it a ‘Zombie BID,’ because it just keeps on coming back. You can’t kill it,” Walker said.
