TED CASSELL
WESTFIELD – A group of downtown property owners submitted a petition to the City Clerk yesterday, which under state law, could lead to the dissolution of the Business Improvement District established in 2006.
Under that state law (MGL Chapter 400, Section 10) the City Clerk, upon verification of the petition, must schedule a public hearing within 30 days before the City Council, which following the hearing can vote to either maintain or dissolve the BID organization.
The Westfield BID was established under the original state law as a voluntary participation organization. Many of the property owners within the BID opted out of membership. Then the state modified the law, making membership within the district mandatory.
The group seeking to disband BID is required to submit a petition containing signatures of 51 percent of the property owners.
Ted Cassell, owner of Park Square Realty on Elm Street, said this morning that the petition contains signatures of 57 percent of the property owners within the district.
“We’re very confident that the petition signatures will be verified,” Cassell said. “We spent a lot of time going over the list of property owners and we crossed-verified the list through public records.
Cassell said the property owners are seeking to disband BID because they “don’t see a value in BID membership. It’s not bearing fruit as we hoped it would.”
Property owners are paying taxes on their commercial property at the commercial tax rate of $33.84 per $1,000 of assessed value. The owners are also charged a .5 percent BID surtax based on the assessed value of their property.
“Commercial property owners are paying taxes at the commercial rate, and then are saddled with an additional (BID) fee,” Cassell said.
Attorney Brad Moir, whose office is located within the BID on Court Street, said the lack of a voice for property owners who originally opted out is a primary reason for the petition effort.
“The original BID was totally voluntary until the state Legislature passed the amended law five years later making it mandatory,” Moir said this morning.
