WPCNR THE BID NEWS By John F. Bailey April 9, 2007: The key form Property Owners need to object to including their property in the new proposed extension of the Downtown Business Improvement District to West Post Road, Lexington Avenue, Maple Avenue to Bloomingdale Road will be mailed on telephone request to owners who want the form, the City Clerk said today.
Objection! Previously this form required to file an objection to having your property join the Expanded BID District, was only available to owners at the City Clerk’s Office, and, WPCNR has learned the key form to object to BID expansion was not distributed by mail when the public hearing was announced, nor procedures to object explained comprehensively. Photo, WPCNR News.
It was announced today by City Clerk Anne McPherson that the Objection Forms are obtainable by owners, by phoning the City Clerk’s Office at 422-1227, and requesting a copy by mail, rather than coming to the Clerk’s office in person. They need to be filed to make an objection within 30 days of when the Public Hearing is closed (which is still open, McPherson said).
Rick Ammirato, Executive Director of the BID told WPCNR the Objection Form was not mailed out to prospective owners because Public Law 980-e does not specify that the city has to send out the form. Mr. Ammirato is shown at the Common Council hearing last Wednesday as he was explaining how extensive the notification process had been.
The materials sent owners in the target BID Expansion zone, did not say the form was available by telephone.
Ammirato told WPCNR owners were sent the Resolution of the Common Council which the Common Council passed which specifically endorses the procedure where owners had to schlep into City Hall to file the objection:
Council-endorsed. No Objections Yet, Clerk Reports
The Council Resolution reads, to wit: “RESOLVED, that any owners of real property deemed benefitted and, therefore, within the proposed extension of the District, who object to the plan, must file their objection in the office of the City Clerk, on forms made available by said Clerk,within the thirty days of the conclusion of the public hearing…”
Anne McPherson, the City Clerk told WPCNR today, that so far no objection forms have been received by any of the approximate 200 property owners, refusing to join the BID.
She said that persons have picked up the forms, but has not kept a tally of how many “Objection Forms” have been handed out. McPherson said owners wanting a form can call the clerk’s office at 422-1269, and the form will be mailed to them.
The form sent property owners announcing the public hearing instructed that “Any owner of real property deemed benefitted and therefore within the District, objecting to the Amended District Plan, may file an objection at the Office of the City Clerk, on forms made available by the City Clerk, within thirty (30) days of the close of the hearing on the proposed District.”
The form asks, or tells the recipient, “IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS OF THE PUBLIC NOTICE OBJECTIONS MAY BE FILED WITHIN 30 DAY(S) OF THE CLOSE OF THE PUBLIC HEARING AND I, THE UNDERSIGNED, FILE THIS OBJECTION TO THE EXPANSION OF THE WHITE PLAINS BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT WITH COMMENTS AS FOLLOWS.”
No Step-by-Step Instruction.
Nowhere does the form say explicity that this is the only way to turn down the program, in this case, words in plain English to the effect that to vote against expanding the BID to his area, the owner must say ‘No” they do not want it. All it does is ask for “ Negative Comments” and ask for objections.
There is no “check box NO” if you do not want to join the BID instruction.
Public Law Allows It.
According to the General Municipal Law Section 980-e, which governs Business Improvement District Expansion, the city appears to has done the minimum necessary to inform members about the BID. According to its Executive Director, Rick Ammirato, the BID sent out a 1,000 letters, sent letters to all owners, but did not include maps of the district. Ammirato said the map was available at the Clerk’s Office.
According to an owner who is in favor of the BID expansion, and owns within the target area in the BID expansion, he did not receive the form pictured above in the mailing he got. He said he was not informed of how much approximately his assessment would be, and he did not receive a map of the district.
A Law Subject to Interpretation
Exactly what the city was required to tell owners about what they could expect is very vague in Law 980-e. The law states, in part, in addition to publishing a Public Notice in the official city newspaper,
“the legislative body shall cause a copy of the resolution or a summary thereof to be mailed to each owner of real property within the proposed district,” and that “such summary shall include the business address of the municipal clerk, a statement that copies of the resolution shall be made available free of charge to the public, the improvements, maintenance and operation, and a statement indicating the rights of owners to object pursuant to subdivision (b) of this section.
The Public Law 980-e states “The resolution shall also contain a statement that any owner of real property…objecting to the plan must file an objection at the office of the municipal clerk within thirty days of the conclusion of the hearing on forms made available by the clerk….”
The Public Law does not say the “forms” to file any objection have to be mailed to all the owners. Hence, technically the city is within the law by saying that owners must pick up the form at the clerk’s office to file the objection.
Supporter Criticizes the Subterfuge
According to the property owner WPCNR, he never received the form upon which the objection should be filed. “I did not know, if you don’t show up that’s a vote for yes, and it should be the opposite. That reminds me of Port Chester. “
Asked if had received the form that has to be returned to the city clerk when he was informed of the hearing last week, “I do not think so. At least it doesn’t ring a bell.”
The owner did not receive the map of the proposed district, but he has seen it.
Asked if the letter told him how much his property would be assessed, he said, “No.”
Million Dollar Baby
Ammirato said that should the majority of the owners not object (51%) the BID budget (now $575,000) would expand to $1.6 Million, with the new expansion to Lexington Avenue, West Post Road, and down Maple Avenue to Bloomingdale Road providing $1,000,000.
Ammirato said there was not that much objection to the BID expansion at last Wednesday evening’s Common Council meeting.
The Executive Director also said the communication to property owners contained, in addition to the Common Council resolution, a Notice of Public Hearing, spelling out what “The Extended District Plan” would do:
An excerpt from that Notice of Public Hearing reads: White Plains Downtown District Management Association would offer the following services including, but not limited to: Marketing and Promotion, Business Recruitment, Public Amenities, Physical Improvements, Parking Promotions, Sanitation needed for special events and sidewalk cleaning not now performed by the City and Holiday lighting; Business Assistance, Administration, Special Projects and Research and Planning.
Ammirato encouraged owners and tenants of businesses to come in to the Clerk’s Office to examine the “amended District Plan” at the City Clerk’s office to learn more details of the above services.
Typical Costs to Typical Businesses in Targeted Area.
Ammirato issued a statement to WPCNR explaining the impacts on typical businesses along Lex, West Post Road and Maple Avenue:
The estimated rates for BID assessment in the extended district are $0.056497 per sq. ft. of Gross Floor Area (GFA) and $14.353123 per sq. ft. of Linear Street Frontage (LSF). In practical terms:
1,000 sq. ft. of GFA + 25 sq. ft. of LSF= $415.33 per year or $1.14 per day
10,000 sq. ft. of GFA + 100 sq. ft. of LSF= $2000.28 per year or $5.48 per day
100,000 sq. ft. of GFA + 200 sq. ft. of LSF= $8,520.32 per year or $23.34 per day
In examining the paperwork sent by the BID to owners, including the Notice of Public Hearing and Council Resolution, there is no mention of the “maximum cost thereof” of the “improvements proposed and the maximum cost thereof, the total annual amount proposed to be expended for improvements, maintenance and operation,” as called for in the law.
Worthy of any Book Club Copywriter:
The Notice of Public Hearing states this on objection to inclusion in the district:
“Any owner of real property deemed benefitted and therefore within the District, objecting to the Amended District Plan, may file an objection at the Office of the City Clerk, on forms made available by the City Clerk, within thirty (30) days of the close of the hearing on the proposed District. If owners of at least fifty-one (51%) of the assessed value of benefitted real property situated within the boundaries of the District proposed for establishment… or at least fifty-one percent (51%) of the owners of benefitted property within the area included in the District proposed for establishment file objections with the City Clerk, the District shall not be established.”
The procedure endorsed by the Common Council (by their own resolution) and the state General Municipal Law Section 980-e is reminiscent of book club offers, where you had to send back a postcard refusing this month’s book.
The law makes it easy to put the onus of objection on the owners – requiring them to come in to City Hall to get a form, and not sending them an objection form to start with – let alone a sample assessment.
It is as if to stop a book coming to you, you had to fly to a publisher’s headquarters to pick up a form to stop those books coming.
Devious, Backhanded, Underhanded
This process of notification and saying “NO” to the BID, was roundly criticized by Bill Waterman, the former councilman last Wednesday evening. Speaking to WPCNR today, Waterman said there was no map, no explanation of what the BID would do for the Post Road area. He said the first time he knew you could get a form by mail was when it was mentioned on the televised Common Council meeting last Wednesday.
Bill Waterman property owner in targeted area, as he appeared at the Common Council hearing last week.
He characterized the BID notification procedure as “a backhanded, underhanded devious way of doing business, and excusing it by hiding behind a public law. We don’t need the BID in our area. We rejected the BID in our area 7 to 8 years ago. These landlords say they are behind it. They’re just going to pass along the cost to the tenants.”
He said there was no explanation of what the BID was going to do for the neighborhood. He said the neighborhood was a group of mom and pop stores which could not bear the increase in rents. He said street festivals, a staple of BID promotion could not work on Post Road because the Hospital emergency entrance was on that street, and posed the question, what could the BID do for the neighborhood.l “They (the BID) don’t understand our neighborhood. They’re a group of Hispanic and Latino businesses catering to the neighborhood, this is neighborhood retail.”
