After accepting an amendment to the 2005 Business Improvement District No. 1 Plan, the Madison Common Council unanimously passed the 2006 BID Tuesday evening, potentially affecting at least eight local businesses.
BID, which was created in 1999, will now charge business owners with large surface parking lots the full business assessment rates, said Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4. Currently, downtown businesses are charged $15 per lineal foot for the amount of space a storefront takes up on the street.
As a result, businesses on the upper floors of multi-level buildings pay far less than ground level establishments.
'Businesses such as Sunroom Caf??, which are located on the second floor, only have to pay for the space their door takes up on the street,' said Ald. Austin King, District 8.
Surface parking lots are also charged per lineal foot but are capped at $665.50. Under the new amendment, the price cap is lifted, Downtown Madison BID Manager Kris Grutzner said. 'There are eight properties downtown that will no longer be able to benefit from the cap.'
Businesses most affected by the amendment include those located on Gilman, State and Frances Streets. University Inn and Blue Velvet will be particularly affected because of their large rear parking lot, King said.
'We held an annual meeting to discuss the proposed changes and invited all local business owners, but only 30 businesses showed up with only seven contentions to our plans,' Grutzner said. 'So hopefully that shows we're doing a good job.'
The BID committee focused on the issue because they feel the space taken up by the lots can be better used for the construction of new local businesses, Grutzner added.
'Even [in] the area around the University Inn, there is a huge gap left for the fencing of the parking lot,' King said. 'There could have been a business there, but there is just a gap.'
'Surface parking lots are a blight on downtown,' he added. 'We would like to encourage options such as underground parking.'
In addition to working for more downtown business space, BID was set in place seven years ago to maximize marketing and promotion downtown. According to Grutzner, the committee also works to promote events like Farmer's Market and Jazz at 5, showing the Madison community all the downtown area has to offer.
