Earlier this month, proponents of an East Tosa Business Improvement District, or BID, confronted a sudden roadblock in their effort to formalize a new entity that would collect a new tax on North Avenue commercial properties to invest in improvements to the busy thoroughfare.
A group of property owners had filed a petition objecting to the BID plan, and they appeared to have enough signatures to block it — with opponents representing more than 40% of the assessed property value in the proposed district.
BID supporters, however, responded by appealing directly to some of those property owners, and by their accounts they succeeded in persuading at least three of them to reverse their opposition: They said the owners of Rocket Baby Bakery, Alfa Flower Shop and the former Chinese Pagoda restaurant rescinded their signatures on the opposition petition.
A fourth unnamed property owner also is believed to have reversed position after initially signing the petition, according to Anna Jarecki, owner of Nourish Skin and Sugar Studio and one of the lead advocates of the BID.
She and other proponents had until end of business on Oct. 24 to reduce opposition below the 40% threshold. The city then would need to verify whether the BID proposal survived and forward it on to the Common Council for a final vote at its Oct. 28 meeting. That outcome remained unclear at the time of this story's publication.
"While we are very optimistic, we are waiting to share that information until it is verified by the city," Jarecki told Tosa Forward News in an afternoon email on Oct. 24.
Wauwatosa currently has only one Business Improvement District, in Tosa Village, under a state statute that allows property owners to form such organizations to levy taxes on participating nonresidential properties to be spent on paid staff, marketing and improvements within the district.
Advocates of the East Tosa BID have said it would establish a sustainable model for growth and vitality in the district and allow businesses collectively to advocate for safety and physical improvements and to market North Avenue beyond the neighborhood.
Under the East Tosa district’s proposed operating plan, nonresidential properties on North Avenue would be taxed at $1.50 per $1,000 in assessed value, up to a maximum of $5,000 each, to fund an annual BID budget of about $140,000, including a paid part-time director. It would not tax homeowners.
The business improvement district would be governed by a board, similar to a nonprofit board, though it also needs city approval because its funding would be facilitated by the new tax collection within the district.
