The City Council created the downtown Business Improvement District (BID) No. 0001 in August, 2005.  State law sunsets districts after 10 years and re-creating them requires the same procedure as the original.  Owners of at least 60% of the proposed district property must sign and submit a petition to initiate a district.  Downtown and east Billings property owners have submitted a petition with signatures that represent 61.1% of the property within the proposed district.  On October 27, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 14-10404 which stated the Council's intention to create the district.  A public hearing was advertised for November 24th and notifications were sent to all property owners in the proposed new district.  After the Council conducts the public hearing, it may adopt the attached resolution that will create the district, effective in August 2015, when the current district sunsets.     

City Council may:

• Approve the resolution creating the downtown BID, effective in August 2015, or;
• Delay adoption of the resolution, or;
• Disapprove the resolution.  The current district will sunset in August 2015 and the BID's activities will be suspended shortly thereafter. 

If the Council creates the new district, the City's properties will be assessed equally with private property.  The BID assessment for tax year 2014 will be approximately $30,000.  Tax year 2015 assessments should be similar.  Total, district-wide assessments should equal approximately $287,000.  The City's Finance Department prepares the assessments for the BID, sends that information to the County for billing and collection and then distributes the funds to the BID.  By State law, Finance may not  recover its costs by charging the BID.  

Staff recommends that the City Council conduct a public hearing and adopt the Resolution creating Downtown Business Improvement District 0001, effective August 22, 2015.