Commission endorses Circle BID extension

The Sarasota City Commission unanimously agreed with St. Armands Circle Business Improvement District changes proposed by its chairman Monday night. The changes will allow the BID to move forward with a referenda for a 10-year extension of its Circle taxing district.

A 10-year extension, Circle officials believe, will help fund future Circle enhancements and a parking garage.

Leading BID organizer and Chairman Marty Rappaport presented desired changes for BID requirements at the commission regular meeting. The changes mandate a board member must be an owner and taxpayer of property within the district. To avoid conflicts of interest, Rappaport also suggested no two directors can serve if they share ownership on one or more properties within the district. And to ensure the BID remains a landowner association, Rappaport proposed that at no time can there be any more than one director who is both a landowner and a merchant within the district.

Currently, the BID board consists of a merchant landowner and two landowner investors. It’s perceived that if a majority of merchants or merchant landowners were on the three-member board, the board could then choose to use the extra 2-mills generated for BID monies to fund merchant special events and pay for a BID executive director salary instead of funding capital improvement projects.

“Unless these changes can be incorporated into a city ordinance to keep the BID as a landowner association, we will not have the necessary votes to approve the referendum,” Rappaport said.

The commission unanimously voted to direct city staff to amend the ordinance to include the proposed changes, which means the BID will be moving forward with a 10-year extension referenda effort that’s expected to cost $15,000.

Commissioner Shannon Snyder made a motion to approve the changes, citing the BID “as the example the community has looked to emulate.”

“They take care of everything on their own out there and solve their own problems,” Snyder said. “They deserve our support on this.”

During its 10-year extension, the BID hopes to gather funds for a parking garage on the Circle, build public bathrooms, bury power lines, plant more landscaping and erect Circle entrance signs for motorists.

The BID agrees the last 10 years of taxing its Circle property owners an extra 2 mills has been beneficial, funding a dozen projects and helping to create more than $2.5 million worth of improvements.