BID public hearing draws crowd despite scheduling kerfuffle

An April 23 public hearing on a proposed business improvement district became an endurance test for members of the public as a scheduling mishap stretched the event almost six hours into the night.

The Asheville City Council meeting was moved from its regular venue at City Hall to the Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville and began at 4 p.m., an hour earlier than its regular start time to accommodate the large crowd expected. Three other public hearings that had been scheduled that night were postponed, leaving only the business improvement district public hearing on the Council’s agenda. 

Community members began gathering at the venue around 3:30 p.m. to comment on the business improvement district, otherwise known as the BID. If approved in its current form, the BID would raise taxes on downtown commercial and residential properties to fund area-specific services. As Council moved through its otherwise light agenda, it appeared its members were ready to participate in the BID discussion by 5:30 p.m. 

Except they couldn’t, according to City Attorney Brad Branham. Branham noted that since the BID public hearing was advertised to begin at 7 p.m, Council and the public were legally required to wait until then to begin the hearing.

The crowd of roughly 120 people expressed surprise and anger at the last-minute announcement. 

“What’s happening here tonight really demonstrates that you don’t care about hearing the voices of the people,” said resident Grace Barron. “Everything about this whole process was difficult to navigate. I mean, you said we need to be here at 3:30, and most people who are working a 9-to-5-type job are not going to be able to access that. And now you’ve [pushed] the [public hearing] back to 7 p.m. You kind of make up rules along the way.” 

“I’m with the other folks who wanted to express their disappointment with the changing around of the agenda today. And as a service worker, I’m lucky enough to have had most of the day off,” added Gab Bonfiglio.

The BID presentation finally began about 7:15 p.m. The BID proposal was developed by the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce and presented by Eva-Michelle Spicer, co-owner of Spicer Greene Jewelers, and Larry Crosby, general manager at The Foundry Hotel. The plan would assess 9 cents per $100 valuation for downtown property owners and residents — about $360 per year for a property assessed at $400,000. The estimated annual budget for the BID could reach $1.25 million and could fund enhanced litter removal, landscaping, beautification efforts and a staff of downtown safety ambassadors. 

As proposed, a 15-person, Council-appointed board would govern the BID and would be made up of commercial and residential property owners and tenants, a food and beverage worker, an office tenant, a community representative and one at-large member. 

Following the presentation, 52 people spoke after Council suspended its rule that normally limits public comments to one hour. 

Of those, 13 people spoke in favor of the BID, saying that additional funding was needed to support the large number of residents and tourists who use downtown’s amenities and that the benefits of the BID would extend to Asheville as a whole. 

JB McKibbon of McKibbon Hospitality, which owns the AC Hotel, Aloft Hotel, District 42 cocktail bar and other properties downtown, said that the increased tax was important to improve safety, noting that some hotel employees have been mugged while walking to their cars at night.

“As far as I’m aware, we’re the largest property owner impacted by the BID and will represent roughly 10% of what’s required for the BID [budget],” he said. “I wish we were not at a point where we needed to spend extra funds in order to get where we felt the city needed to be to be welcoming to our guests and our employees. But clearly, I think there’s a lot of support around it.” 

The majority of the commenters spoke out against the BID and expressed concerns over the the role of the proposed safety ambassadors, the impact on Asheville’s homeless population and the makeup of the BID board.

“The BID promotes further marginalization of our city’s most vulnerable communities for its clean and safe program,” added resident Kyle Teller. “My work is not only public education, but cultural studies and research, [and] ‘clean and safe’ has been a dog whistle against marginalized communities for so many decades.” 

Several Council members also expressed concern over using property tax value as a criterion for the BID’s leadership and questioned whether the BID’s funds could be used to fund more community responder positions instead of safety ambassadors. 

“We can choose the type of board we want and who’s going to oversee the board?” asked Council member Antanette Mosley. “‘[The Chamber’s] proposal is just a recommendation, right?”

“There’s no obligation to form a board even if you adopt a BID,” answered City Attorney Branham. “Even if you adopt it and contract with a third party to perform the services, there is no obligation to form a BID board. If you do decide to form a BID board, it is Council’s discretion. Although you can empower that board, Council must maintain final discretion over all use of funds.”

The BID proposal requires two votes from Council. The first is slated for Tuesday, May 14, and the second on Tuesday, June 11. If approved, the governance structure of the BID will be established at a later date. 

“I think at the heart of a lot of these conversations I’m hearing is that there’s just really different perspectives and deep mistrust of the others who have a different perspective,” said Council member Maggie Ullman, reflecting on the public comments. “I think that we need to figure out what a ‘both-and’ solution looks like. To me, I think it’s important to make sure that if we have a part of our community raising their hands and saying, ‘Hey, I see a problem, could we help.’ I’m not in a place to turn away anybody helping right now.”