White Plains Council Sets Hearing to Increase Expenditures Limit for Business District
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The White Plains Common Council has set a public hearing to double the expenditures limit for the city’s Downtown Business Improvement District (BID).
The April 10 hearing will focus on a proposed amendment to increase the permitted expenditures of the District Management Association for improvements, services, maintenance and operations from $750,000 to $1.5 million.
The District Management Plan was first adopted by the Common Council in 1997, but White Plains Business Improvement District Executive Director Jennifer Furioli stated in a March 24 letter to the Common Council $750,000 that was approved in 2006 is no longer sufficient to cover the current expenses of the BID.
“The BID has matured to produce more sophisticated business promotions, events, and supplemental services that benefit key downtown stakeholders and ratepayers,” Furioli wrote. “These include the addition of sidewalk gum removal services, an Annual Restaurant Month, Oktoberfest, the White Plains Holiday Market, various outdoor concert series, an expanded horticulture program and public arts and placemaking initiatives.”
Furioli further stated a restrictive cap on expenditures also makes it difficult for the BID to apply for grants and sponsorships that could underwrite programming.
“As a long-standing downtown stakeholder, our BID is also relied upon as a key implementation partner in the development and presentation of several public events,” she stated, mentioning the White Plains Jazz Fest as an example. “Such limitations upon our annual expenditures could have the unintended policy consequence of forcing the BID to withdraw from co-produced/sponsored events in order to avoid the expenditure cap, despite having the ability to procure adequate sponsorship dollars to cover all expenses, creating undue logistical burdens and even increased expenses upon those partners as a result.”
The hearing will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the City Hall chambers.
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