By Wafir Salih | wsalih@alextimes.com
The push for a Business Improvement District in Old Town failed for the third time earlier this month after property owners voted 162 to 85 against the initiative.
With only 34% of property owners within the proposed boundaries voting in favor, the proposal fell far short of the 60% support required for consideration by City Council. Nearly half of property owners in eligible parcels, 49% exactly, did not participate in the vote.
This BID initiative has been underway for more than 18 months, with the timeframe pushed back several times as proponents, led by Old Town Council, tried to reach the 60% threshold. Then, this summer, proponents changed the rules for approval, stating that businesses that didn’t respond would not be considered as part of the percentage for calculation.
In theory this should have made reaching the 60% threshold easier, but even under the revised rules, almost twice as many property owners voted “no” as in support. Another controversial aspect of the revised proposal is that the consultant firm paid $100,000 by the city to promote the BID was placed in charge of tracking and tallying the votes.
City Manager Jim Parajon confirmed the voting results with the Times.
“The BID proposal developed by Old Town businesses did not achieve the required 60% support necessary to move the proposal forward to City Council for consideration. As a result, there is no subsequent action anticipated for the proposal,” Parajon wrote in an email to the Times.
Boyd Walker, leader of the Anti-BID Coalition and a property owner of multiple Airbnbs in the area, said he learned about the final count on Oct. 11, which prompted him to send out a press release through the coalition about what took place.
Walker told the Times that efforts to establish a BID in Old Town should be paused for the foreseeable future.
“I don’t think Old Town Business Association should be allowed to come forward with another proposal for at least five years,” Walker said. “Because they failed and this BID dragged on for two years, which meant me and other property owners had to be focused on it for that long at our own personal expense and time away from our businesses.”
Mayor Justin Wilson said he was not caught off guard with the result.
“I’m not terribly surprised. You know, still obviously a lot of people who didn’t respond, but certainly the energy is always going to be from the folks who oppose something like this,” Wilson said.
The official website for the Old Town BID, oldtownbusinessbisd.com, which included details on the proposed board members and what a BID would entail, appears to have gone offline at the time of this publication.
The Times sent interview requests to Charlotte Hall, who is the executive director of the Old Town Business Association, the nonprofit group spearheading the BID effort; Amy Rutherford, a member of the association and owner of Red Barn Mercantile; and Trae Lamond, owner of the Chadwicks restaurant and a proposed voting member of the BID’s board. All declined to comment.
The Times intended to ask the association whether there were plans to reintroduce the BID in the future.
Had it been implemented, the BID would have imposed an additional 10-cent tax per $100 of assessed value on property owners who fall within the 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. City Council decided in a May 28 legislative meeting that property owners who abstained from voting would be excluded from the final tally, making it easier for the Old Town Business Association to reach the 60% threshold of “yes” votes required to establish a BID.
Many business owners opposed the rule change by Council. Brandon Byrd, owner of Goodies Frozen Custard & Treats on Commerce Street, said in a previous interview with the Times that the rule change to not count nonrespondents in the final total was indicative of the BID’s unpopularity.
“You got all the major landowners, developers, restaurateurs – you’ve got the ear of City Council, you have everything in your favor … and yet you still must change the rules to only benefit the proponents,” Byrd said.
The city also contracted Municap, a consulting firm, $100,000 to promote the BID initiative, a Freedom of Information Act request revealed. Walker said there should have been clear support from over 60% of property owners prior to the BID being put up for discussion in front of Council.
“This 60% threshold should be reached before City Council even takes up the idea of a BID. Because, unless you can show widespread support, there’s no point in even bringing a BID to the attention of City Council,” Walker said.
Wilson noted that the fluctuating support for the BID over the years shows how long the issue has been debated.
“The people who support it have switched to the opposition and the people who have opposed have switched to [supporting it] over that time. That’s how long we’ve been considering it,” Wilson said.
Wilson said a BID in Old Town could have helped with collecting revenue from businesses that may have benefitted from events held by associations that they’re not a part of.
“I think the challenge that we’ve always had is there are businesses that participate in the Old Town Business Association, the Boutique District, the Del Ray Business Association or the West End Business Association – those are all voluntary,” Wilson said. “So, you’re always going to have the freeloader phenomenon where you have businesses that will benefit from the regional marketing or the regional district improvements and events and things like that, that don’t pay for it. And I think the BID is designed to address that challenge.”
Wilson suggested future possibilities for BIDs in other parts of Alexandria, like Landmark or Potomac Yard, where setting up a BID could be more straightforward from the outset.
“The BIDs that we’ll likely see in Alexandria are going to be BIDs that are in new neighborhoods right off the bat where a BID is set up from the beginning. And then they’re unlikely to go away, essentially. Once a BID is in place, they rarely go away,” Wilson said.
Walker agreed that a BID could be implemented in the Landmark area.
“I think Landmark is a case where maybe they could have a BID because they’re going to have just a few property owners,” Walker said.
Wilson said efforts to establish a BID in Old Town may not be over, given the history of repeated attempts.
“It’s come back three times. I’m sure it’ll come back again,” Wilson said.