WESTFIELD – The Massachusetts legislature voted on July 31 to pass an amendment to MGL 40o, the enabling legislation for Business Improvement Districts in the Commonwealth. On August 7, Governor Deval Patrick signed the bill, and it became law. This amendment changes the parameters under which Massachusetts BIDs exist, transforming the statute from something to was percieved to be an unusual and inefficient method for improving downtowns, to something much more in line with the established standard across the country.
There are two primary changes to the statute from this amendment. First, the provision enabling property owners to opt out of the BID had been eliminated. This provision had created inequitable distribution of costs and benefits related to BIDs, and the new language will allow services to be administered much more fairly. In application to existing BIDs, properties that transfer are no longer allowed to opt out of the BID as of August 7, but properties that legitimately opted out previous to that will remain opted out until a successful reauthorization vote or until they opt in voluntarily.
Second, the amendment changes the statue to mandate a reauthorization vote for all BIDs every five years. This is intended to give the property owners in the community recourse in the case that a BID is not providing them with adequate return on their investment. The vote is of all BID member property owners who are in good standing. The first reauthorization vote is required to take place within five years of this amendments passage. The Westfield BID Board will be holding a special meeting to discuss the impacts to the WBID, its membership and appropriate plans as to how they will proceed with implementation of the new changes.
The language of Chapter 40o is available at http:www.malegilsature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleVII/Chapter40o.
