Asheville City Council may delay BID decision until Oct. 9

Today the city of Asheville released a list of public hearings scheduled for the Sept. 25 Asheville City Council meeting. It notes that a decision on a Business Improvement District for downtown could be delayed until Oct. 9. The interim BID Board has requested the change, as Vice Mayor Esther Manheimer will be absent that night.

On June 12, Council delayed consideration of the BID — an independent nonprofit funded by a special tax district — until this month, citing concerns about transparency, governance, and finances that they wanted answered before supporting the BID. That meeting reflected a heated debate among members of the public, with the comment period seeing both assertions that the BID is necessary for downtown’s future prosperity and that it would destroy downtown’s culture and turn power over to an un-democratic board.

If approved Oct. 9, the earliest the BID could take effect would be July 2013.

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