Community Board 2 Votes To Support MetroTech BID Expansion

Community Board 2 (CB 2) members voted overwhelmingly at their May meeting to support the MetroTech Business Improvement District’s (BID) plans to expand its boundaries from Downtown Brooklyn to include some cultural institutions in part of Fort Greene. Their support was given with the understanding that the BID would continue their community outreach with both affected residents and CB 2. Such outreach might also include creating a non-voting seat for a CB 2 member on the BID’s Residential Advisory Board.

“We feel a Residential Advisory Committee will allow transparency and clearer communication [between parties],” said Andrew Kalish, director of cultural development for MetroTech BID. Kalish noted that thus far, the BID has gone door-to-door to local residents and merchants, distributing informational mailers/flyers and meeting with condo boards and cultural groups, and there have been “zero no votes from building property owners.”

The BID’s boundaries would grow to form a “sub-district” that includes a stretch of DeKalb Avenue (between Rockwell and Fort Greene Places), as well as cultural institutions such as BRIC, Theatre For A New Audience, Mark Morris Dance Group, BAM Opera House, Atlantic Terminal, and Atlantic Center.

Some residential buildings in the area, such as One Hanson Place, would also be included, along with two public plazas in the works: “a completely renovated Fox Square [the former home of Five Guys From Brooklyn]and a new 16,000-square-foot plaza [called Times Plaza] as part of the BAM South Site on the corner of Lafayette and Flatbush.”

Being incorporated into the BID means residential groups and merchants will have to pay an additional fee to support BID services, which will include:

• supplemental sanitation
• general area maintenance
• plaza maintenance
• marketing
• public space programming

“It sounds very exciting, really,” said Howard Pitsch, a resident of 33 years and member of the nonprofit Fort Greene Association. “I live on Cumberland Street and it’s nice that they’re so coordinated. BIDs have proven their validity. I just ask that they please be considerate with the historic districts when making new lighting historically appropriate.”

Asked how homeowners and small business will be affected by increased fees, and whether there will be any discounts or other considerations for those on fixed incomes, Kalish noted that he “[doesn’t] think a discount program can work here [because] services in return for money is there” and that “there will be no effect on affordable and rent-stabilized units.”

For example, he said, “a [merchant] on St. Felix Street is going to eat the cost because he owns the building, but he supports [the BID expanding] because of the beautification benefits that will help draw traffic.”

Cultural groups would be charged a portion of their fees up front and the rest over the course of the year.

The average co-op would contribute $9 per month to the BID; a residential assessment would be conducted annually and the residential budget would be a maximum of $1 million.

The project has a proposed budget of $771,533:

• $165,873 for sanitation
• $58,500 for landscaping
• $47,550 for maintenance
• $46,550 for the Arts Plaza (next to Theatre for a New Audience on Ashland Place)
• $161,800 for the South Site Plaza
• $50,000 for programming