Image: courtesy of Chinatown Partnership LDC.

Group of Chinatown property owners cited concerns about the BID’s assessment formula. On May 26, 2011, the City Council’s Finance Committee held a hearing on the Department of Small Business Services’ plan to create the Chinatown Business Improvement District encompassing more than 6,000 commercial businesses in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The BID would comprise 50 blocks generally bounded by Broome Street to the north, Worth and Madison Streets to the south, Allen Street to the east, and Broadway to the west. The BID’s projected first-year budget of $1,300,000 would be used primarily to fund sanitation services and holiday lighting costs.

At the City Planning Commission’s hearing on the proposal, a representative of the Chinatown BID Steering Committee testified that 92 percent of commercial and residential property owners supported the plan. After the hearing, however, the Commission received letters from property owners opposed to the BID’s assessment formula. 8 CityLand 42 (April 15, 2011). (read more…)