As you may be aware, Hudson River Park receives no city or
state funding for operating and maintaining the park and its budget has been running a
deficit. As a result, an organization called Friends of Hudson River Park has
proposed that a Neighborhood Improvement District (NID) be created to collect
up to $10 million annually to fill the budget gap. This NID, which is the
equivalent of a Business Improvement District (BID), would impose a legally
enforceable annual assessment (a tax by any other name) on property owners
living within several blocks of the park between Murray Street and 59th
Street. The Friends group has sought support for its proposal from the three
Community Boards that would be affected by this NID and is planning to submit a
formal legislative proposal to the City Planning Commission and City Council as
early as late April.
Our full Q& A on the HRP NID is here.
Our full Q& A on the HRP NID is here.
We oppose the creation of the NID for the following reasons:
1.
It is
unfair to ask 8,000 tax-lot owners to bear responsibility for up to a third
of the park’s annual operating budget. A recent Friends survey found that 55
percent of those who use the park are not from the surrounding area and 48
percent do not even come from Manhattan. An entrance fee for park users would
be more equitable but would rightly be considered abhorrent, so why is a tax on
a select group of residents who may never use the park but happen to live in an
arbitrarily determined “neighborhood” deemed more acceptable?
2.
The
proposed tax will be levied on people who cannot vote against its creation, violating
a core principle of this nation that there shall not be taxation without
representation. Specifically, individual homeowners and condo owners each get
one vote, but owners of co-op apartments only get one vote for their entire
building. Similarly, landlords can pass this assessment onto renters of
commercial space and market-rate residential apartments the next time a lease is written, but
tenants’ votes are not counted in determining whether there is broad support
for this proposal. In addition, the onus is on opponents to stop it: for the City Council to reject the plan, at least 51 percent of
property owners must object by filing a notarized copy of their deed with the City Clerk; otherwise, support is assumed.
4.
According to the Friends literature, as much as 40 percent of the money that
would be raised by this assessment will not go to supporting the park. Up
to $500,000 a year, for instance, will be earmarked for unspecified community
groups that now have a financial incentive to support this proposal.
5. The Friends marketing never mentions debt, but NID revenues can be borrowed against. The District Plan makes clear that your NID tax can be used to support borrowing and that could mean that no money goes to Hudson River Park upkeep. The plan envisions building one or more expensive new pedestrian bridges over the highway, which will have to be financed with NID debt. If that debt is variable rate and rates go up, debt service takes priority over all other expenses in the NID budget, including the money earmarked for HRP.
6.
The
timing of the proposed NID assessment is terrible. The NID will take $8
million to $10 million a year out of the pockets of property owners and commerical tenants near the
Hudson River, many of whom have suffered serious financial hardship as a result
of Hurricane Sandy.
7.
The
community is not well informed about this proposal. Although the Friends
group likes to point out that it has held seven public meetings, they were
poorly advertised and attendance was very limited. Moreover, many co-op owners
in Community Board #1 said they never received any mailings from Friends prior
to the two public meetings that were held in their district.
8.
The NID
(or BID) structure has never before been imposed on a NYC district where the
residential property owners outnumber business property owners by six to one. If this NID is approved, it will instantly
become the second-largest improvement district in the city, and it will be
saddled with unique governance challenges. The governing board will have to
reflect the reality that the proposed district is not, in fact, a neighborhood,
but includes parts of three Community Boards, three City Council districts, two
State Senate districts and three State Assembly districts. Until more details
are developed about how the governance structure can adequately represent all
the different real estate classes and disparate neighborhoods, this unwieldy proposal
should not go forward.
9.
The Friends of Hudson River Park say they have
spent seven years developing this proposal. Yet they did not hire formal
fundraising staff until last year. They insist the NID is the only way to move
forward, but before they impose a new
tax in perpetuity on our neighbors, other avenues, including a more robust
voluntary membership program, should be more fully explored.
