20220609 - CBDAC Minutes

Central Business District Advisory Committee  (CBDAC)

Meeting Minutes prepared by S. Del Percio approved July 14, 2022

Thursday, June 9, 2022     Zoom Call: 8:30 – 10:00am
 

Members present: Anastasia Bamberg, Jordan Kaufman, Stacey Tsapatsaris, Steve Del Percio, Pamela Perron, Chief Luthcke, Trish Manzo, Michael Pickholz, Phil Davis, Steve Aspero

 

Guests present: JT from Bolger Foundation. Kathryn Schmidt, Jeanne Johnson, Ada Yung, Nina Milanos and our speaker, Jason Gleason.

 

May 12, 2022 Minutes were approved unanimously.

 

Liaison updates (Village Council, Chamber, Guild, CSAC)               

 

Village Council update (Pam) and Membership

 

• New member is Glen Carlough, who owns Steel Wheel Tavern (for 6 years. Also lives in town).

 

• New attendance policy at board/committee mtgs. If you miss 3 in a row, or 25% in a year, that’s an issue.  There are many skilled people in town who want to volunteer – if a space opens, make it available. This is not meant to be retributive.

 

• Grab and Go:
  • The Police Dept is proposing to have shared loading zones. From 6AM to 4PM on weekdays for trucks/deliveries/Uber Eats/etc. Expand existing loading zones and add new ones (i.e. end of Chestnut toward Franklin; on Franklin by dim sum place; on Oak Street; etc.).
  • After 4PM, switch over to 15-min parking. Up to Village Council to decide between 15-min meters (using quarters – no kiosks) and grab/go. (VC is leaning toward the former). Coming back to VC on June 22 after RWPD reworks the proposal.
  • Chief: meters are very hard to find/maintain/collect from. If a kiosk won’t take quarters, call and let the Village know at 201-316-6359. Rich Tarleton.

 

• Town Garage (on Franklin): The Village is negotiating with the owner to try to purchase property and has not yet filed a condemnation complaint. Council has authorized the Village’s licensed soil remediation professional (interface with NJ Dept. of Env’l Protection) to investigate the contaminants in the ground and to provide VC with a report.

 

• Parking 24/7/365: 6 spots in Cottage Street lot and 6 in garage can be rented to CBD and Village residents. (2 in garage are rented already).

 

• Hudson Street Garage wayfinding signs: Proposal for larger signs at last VC work session. Drafts of what they would look like, to come.

 

• New smaller garbage truck was purchased to get through streets better and serve apartment buildings.

 

• 22 new trees planted on East Ridgewood Avenue between Maple Avenue and Cottage Place. Mulched all of them 2 weeks ago – and some mulch washed away during the recent storm. The Village purchased a trailer with 500-gallon tank to water trees in town.

 

• Project Pride: Project Pride volunteers planted many flower pots in town. Councilwoman Lorraine Reynolds is the VC liaison. Did a great job organizing it, planting, etc. (Pam’s are outside the Post Office). New clamshell planters on lamp-posts in Van Neste Square – very pretty and elegant.

 

• New Pride Committee constituted for LGBTQ+. The community celebration this month (June is Pride Month) on June 11 from 1 to 2PM at Van Neste. Thanks to Paul Vagianos for all of his work.

 

• Tom Hillman is retiring and Hillman Electric is likely to close.
  • Nice tribute to him at Chamber meeting yesterday. 112 years in business in Ridgewood. Tom owns the building and will lease it out – remaining an active landlord in town.
  • Committee likes the idea of approaching Home Hardware in Waldwick about opening an annex in that spot. Everyone misses having a hardware store in town.
  •  
• Interactive parking map – Pam gave CBDAC’s recommendations to improve the map to Village Manager and hopes she will entertain them.

 

• Also working on pedestrian underpass, talking to Chris Rutishauser. Jeanne suggestion on artwork, murals. Could a mural go on the side of Hillman building on Walnut Street? Collaboration with Arts Council on mural? Jeanne: downtown Ridgewood should be the arts center of Bergen County.

 

Chamber of Commerce Update (Phil): Chamber meeting involved swearing in of directors. Light agenda other than that and honoring Tom Hillman.

 

Ridgewood Guild Update (Trish): Music in the Night started. Musicians are drawing people from other towns when they perform. Looking for more musicians – don’t have to live in Ridgewood. Music festival was a big success – hope to repeat it every year. Many activities on tap. Trish will send activities to Pam/Committee in advance. Let Guild know about any ideas – Movies in the Park start next week.

 

Citizen Safety Advisory Committee (Anastasia): Trying to get banners up. Lots of roadblocks. Village is paying for it. Franklin Avenue still slated to be repaved sometime this summer. Improvements are still in the County’s hands. Chris R. is working with them but it is going very slowly. Yes, will pave it, but no safety improvements.

 

Remarks by Montclair Center Business Improvement District                                     Executive Director, Jason Gleason

 

Jordan K. intro: Montclair downtown is a big attraction when people look to leave NYC. Ridgewood benefits from a similar dynamic. What are their challenges, solutions, etc. to developing their dynamic downtown? What should towns like ours be thinking about moving forward? What do you like about Ridgewood? What are we missing?

 

Jason G. remarks

 

• BID is a special improvement district! There are many different, weird kinds of classifications. Most are BIDs but all live under this SID structure – NJ state enabling doc. Montclair ordinance refers to the BID as a SID. The distinction is “philosophical.”

 

• Ridgewood CBD is everything that many BIDs around country aspire to be as a main street. Historic, great storefronts, retail mix, clean, plantings, well lit. “Anywhere, USA” qualities. Idea of Main Street model – built on that quaint, Disney idea. Ridgewood has those qualities.

 

• Montclair was where we are now about a decade ago; half of owners around forever; other half were pro-development. Redid the train station, put up apartments, and away they went. It was a heated debate then and still is today.

 

• Jason thinks Montclair is unique in that it has 7 business districts (not all formal BIDs). Upper Montclair, Walnut Street, Watchung, South End, Frog Hollow. Montclair diversity stats: about 32% Black; 15% Hispanic; rest White – just in downtown area.

 

• Jason is hoping to draw 15K people to their first Pride Festival. Montclair did a large mural project in 2019. Chose a theme (“Love Montclair” – not controversial), had a jury taken from art figures in town/residents, conscious of how diverse the town is.

 

• Outline of how the Montclair BID works: first, what is a BID? State has an enabling doc for a SID. Allows town to designate an area “in need” or in want (fairly gray) of a special improvement district.
  • Once designated through a “majority vote/consent” of property owners, those properties that are purely commercial or mixed-use (can include residential), are subject to a SID tax assessment above their property tax at a rate that’s either set or variable, based on if the BID sets the budget, per year.
  • Council each year passes an ordinance to approve the assessment and budget. Pays Montclair BID quarterly. BID does grant writing & some fundraising out of its office.

 

• BID history 20 years ago, Montclair’s vacancy rate was a 20%+. “Broken window syndrome.” Get streets well lit. Work with town to get PSEG contracts in line. Ambassador on street to clean litter. Greening efforts. (Ridgewood is already there on many of these items.) Now, the BID is focused on lots more.

 

• What does the BID do with their budget?
  • Initial budget was $250K. This year’s budget is $1M+.
  • From a staff of 2 to a staff of 9. ED; Deputy Exec. Dir.; admin assistant; community liaison; events director.
  • Ambassador staff of 5 – on street, cleaning litter, greening efforts (watering/weeding too), banner program, shoveling/salting, holiday lights, sidewalk sweeping. “Hard core maintenance.”
  • The BID office staff work with the town. Parking management. “Business-friendly solutions.”

 

• Resources: Main Street USA, Main Street NJ, NJ Business Action, International Downtown Association – main resources for trainings, conferences, etc. They go and learn best practices. Bring it back and work with their council on ordinances, parking/sanitation solutions, forward-thinking because others similar to us are doing it/dealing with same issues as us.

 

• Marketing. The BID does “a ton.” Social media. They work with an outside marketing group called Red Root (from Montclair) creating content, calendars, etc. Promote 300+ of their 500 businesses (“on-the-ground” storefronts). Teach classes 2x/month – partnership with library, adult school, – to business owners about best practices. How to work on your storefront? Use Quickbooks? Risk assessment? Find capital (grants, loans, etc.).

 

• Incubator programs – arts and small biz/entrepreneurs. Helps foster future tenants. They use software to do void analysis – what are the best businesses to come into their environment.

 

• Events – art walk, meet/greets, holidays, small business Saturday, sponsorship events partnering with Jazz Festival, Film Festival, etc.

 

• It can be whatever you want.  Point is that you can have a BID that focuses on just marketing your district; tourism marketing; promoting events. They have time to do this because it’s not volunteer-driven. They are supported by their partners – the property owners/stakeholders – and business owners.

 

• Cost:  $1M in assessed property in Montclair pays $2100/year for the BID. (Roughly 0.21%).
  • Break it down by month – can you get somebody to sweep sidewalk/wash your windows for that price, for the year? It is an easy answer.
  • They got $867K in grant money from NJ – gave $500K back to 146 businesses in rent support during COVID.

 

• Interaction between BID and local government:
  • Once the BID is established, with a boundary, and it’s in place, part of the NJ enabling doc says it needs a DMC (District Management Corporation) that must be a separate 501(c)(3) to manage it (non-profit corp.) that’s separate, private, and not controlled by the township at all.
  • This is generally good – they work a lot, hand in hand, with the town. Becomes cumbersome/frustrating when not seeing eye-to-eye on things.
  • Only real oversight that town has is that it passes the BID’s budget every year. Town can tell BID not to paint a street entirely red, for example – but technically the BID COULD do it, although it is not in their best interest.
  • You want to work with the town, the Council. Play nicely together.

 

• Montclair BID Board composition: seven property owners, 7 business owners, and seven at-large (three purely at-large, 2 town council members appointed by mayor, 1 non-profit in BID, 1 resident of BID).

 

• “Proactively recruit” new businesses into the BID? Software helpful, once you are up and running as a BID. Does the business owner want or need help? Having a relationship with the owners first is paramount. Void analysis – “this type of business would do well here.” Work with brokers; take it back to the owner.

 

• Enabling legislation. NJSA 40:56-65 et seq. The town does not cede jurisdiction to the BID to do whatever it wants. “The State encourage[es] towns and BIDs to have the most flexible relationship together within the confines of the law.” Create events, shut streets, be as proactive as possible/as lenient as possible to work together and create a great space.  

 

• South Park Street improvement project – cobblestone streets, wide sidewalks, bollards to shut street down, trees. $10.5M project. Montclair could only get 4% financing, but the BID was able to get 0% financing. So the BID got the loan and the town paid it back.

 

• Longevity of Montclair BID? Many towns have let theirs lapse. Jason thinks it’s because they’ve just done a good job! They’ve helped raise property values, maintained clean streets, happy business owners/property owners, great community events/communicators.

 

• Ideal background for a BID Executive Director? Thick skin! Ability to deal with a difficult work/life balance. Great communicator. Leadership skills. Background in business or property ownership is key. Jason ran a business in Montclair for 8 years (restaurant).

 

• Ideas: safety banners? Montclair has them too. Division of Highway & Safety has grant money. BID purchasing hardware; local PD is purchasing the banners.

 

• CBDAC is very similar to BID Board of Directors! Difference is annual budget and professional staff.

 

• E-commerce.  From 8 to 40% of Montclair businesses downtown have e-commerce capability from pre- to post-COVID!
  • $120K in grant funding went to partnerships with companies like Beyond Main that went around and helped retailers get on it (46 businesses). Helped set them up with e-commerce presence on Shopify, etc. Teaching online savvy, education, etc. Paramount.

 

• Jason is open to follow up questions via email. Jordan would like a long-term relationship of information exchanging. Everyone agrees that there is no geographic rivalry between Ridgewood and Montclair! “Long-term constructive collaborative relationship” is in both towns’ best interests. Jason can share their BID by-laws too, if we want them.

 

Next meeting on July 14, 2022 via Zoom

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Current Membership:

     Village Council Liaison – Pamela Perron

     Chamber of Commerce Liaison – Philip Davis

     Ridgewood Guild Liaison – Trish Manzo

     3 Business Owners –  Stacey Tsapatsaris, Glenn Carlough, 1 vacancy

     5 Residents – Stephen Del Percio, Jordan Kaufman (Chairman), Michael Pickholz, Anastasia Bamberg (CSAC liaison), Steve Aspero

     Chief of Police – Jacqueline Luthcke   

     Village Engineer – Chris Rutishauser