The excitement was palpable in the parking lot after the March 6 City Council meeting in Northampton. Following the Council's final approval of the formation of a downtown Business Improvement District, members of the Chamber of Commerce's BID committee grabbed their coats and briefcases and assembled outside in a happy confab, graciously accepting congratulations from friends and foes alike. The Northampton BID concept had been three years in the making, and its proponents were in the mood to celebrate.
A month later, downtown property owners have defected from the BID in droves, exercising their right to "opt out" of fee-paying membership before an April 21 deadline. Defectors include some of Northampton's most venerable property-owning businesses—Serio's and State Street Markets, Faces, Country Comfort, Restaurants such as Sylvester's, Jake's, Mulino's, and Bishop's Lounge; Ryan Automotive, Fly-By-Night Furniture, Country Comfort, and more. The list of BID resisters includes a roster of high-profile citizens, including former city solicitor Ed Etheredge, consultant Janet Gezork, planning board chair Frandy Johnson, Ninja Turtle creators Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, civil liberties lawyer Bill Newman, gallery owners Richard Michelson and Gordon Thorne, and Northampton Cooperative bank president Bill Stapleton. Massive, high-value buildings such as Central Chambers (16 Center Street), the Plaza Building (79 Pleasant), and One Roundhouse Plaza are out. Most of the downtown's biggest property owners—Eric Suher, Jeff Dwyer, Jordi Herold, and Richard Abuza—are saying thanks but no thanks to the Northampton Business Improvement District.
Not all important properties have left the BID. Doug Kohl's Thorne's Marketplace is in, Richard Rescia's Columbia Building (housing Ted's Boot Shop and dozens of rental offices) is in, Peter Whalen's Rahar's Building is in, as are the Hotel Northampton and Silverscape Design. The King Street 7-11, Claudio Guerra's two-story Pizzerria Paradiso building, the WHMP studio on Hampton Ave., Joe Blumenthal's Pleasant Street Theater and Downtown Sounds, Ben Coggin's 141 Main, and David Biddle's 168 Main were all still BID members as of press time.
BID members must pay a yearly "fee for service," which, in Northampton, amounts to .5 percent of assessed property value on a yearly basis. Private homes, government buildings, nonprofit agencies and educational institutions are currently exempt from paying these fees. BID opponents have asserted that these fees would amount to a 43 percent increase in property taxes for those who choose to remain members of the organization.
A recent article in the Daily Hampshire Gazette detailed the optimism of the BID committee in the face of growing resistance from downtown investors. "The glass is three-quarters full," Dan Yacuzzo, BID committee chairman, was quoted as saying. The city clerk's office will have its work cut out for it in the coming weeks, as staff transcribe and organize the contents of a heavy folder containing more than 190 opt-out notices, some representing multiple properties, and dozens representing non-BID-fee paying residential condos. There are 492 parcels in the BID, representing a mix of commercial, residential, nonprofit, governmental, and educational properties. An accurate accounting of the impact of commercial property defections upon the BID's projected annual income of $938,000 will not be possible until the city clerk and assessor transcribe the op-out forms into a list and calculate its total valuation.
In a related development, downtown property owners Alan Scheinman, David Pesuit and Eric Suher filed suit against the City of Northampton on April 13, seeking a declaration that the Northampton Business Improvement District was created in violation of state law. Attorney Alan Seewald is representing the three in Hampshire Superior Court.
The suit alleges a number of procedural violations on the part of the city in its verification and oversight of the BID petition process: among others, that the city failed to check signatures to see that each was the rightful property owner; where property was owned by more than one person, to check that each owner had signed; and where property was owned by an entity other than a person, to check that the signator had the right to sign.
The suit alleges that the city failed to reject illegible signatures, and failed to independently determine whether the signatures on the BID petition included "the signatures of the owners of at least fifty-one percent of the assessed valuation of all real property owners within the proposed BID and sixty percent of the real property owners."
The very interpretation of Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40O, wich enables the formation of BIDs, is at stake. There is currently no case law on the books regarding Chapter 40O; the Northampton suit will be the first in the state. The plaintiffs contend that the city misinterpreted state law in allowing a "one-parcel-one-vote" instead of a "one-owner-one-vote" standard on the BID petition. City Solicitor Janet Shepard has concluded that the BID petitioners' choice to allow multiple signatures on the BID petition from parties who own more than one parcel is valid. For instance, Northampton Mayor Mary Clare Higgins signed the original BID petition 15 times on behalf of the city, which is itself a member of the BID. The plaintiffs argue that state law does not prescribe this practice.
The plaintiffs seek a finding that the BID was not validly established, and that any actions taken by the city to establish it are of no legal effect; they request an injunction from the court ordering the city of Northampton to refrain from establishing or operating the district. If the city chooses to fight this one out in the courts, it may find itself in the unenviable position of having to devote scarce public resources, during tough economic times, to the defense of a private organization—an organization that is experiencing an erosion of support from its own constituency.
A list of the properties that have opted out of the Northampton BID can be found here.
