Testimony Supporting House Bill 4454 of 2023, Downtown Detroit Partnership

Summary

Written testimony dated May 16, 2023 supporting House Bill 4454 of 2023, offered to a Michigan House of Representatives committee chaired by Rep. Jason Hoskins on behalf of the Downtown Detroit Business Improvement Zone and Downtown Detroit Partnership. It thanks Representative Tyrone Carter as sponsor and states that the bill amends Chapter 2 of the Principal Shopping District Act, the BIZ Act, to remove the option to assess residential property added in 2020. The testimony states that since that amendment no new Business Improvement Zones have been formed in Michigan, and that the Downtown BIZ provides close to 150,000 labor hours of services a year. It closes with the name of Gina Cavaliere, Chief Community Impact Officer, and attaches a fact sheet on the BIZ.

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DOWNTOWN BUSINESS
DETROIT IMPROVEMENT
ZONE

PARTNERSHIP b>

May 16, 2023

Testimony Supporting House Bill 4454 of 2023
Michigan House of Representatives
Committee on Economie Development and Smal! Business
offered on behalf of the
Downtown Detroit Business Improvement Zone and Downtown Detroit Partnership

Rep. Jason Hoskins, Chairman, and Honorable Committee Members:

Thank you for your consideration of House Bill 4454. On behalf of the Downtown Detroit Business
Improvement Zone and Downtown Detroit Partnership, we support House Bill 4454. Thank you to
Representative Tyrone Carter for your leadership as the sponsor of the bill. This amendment to
Chapter 2 of the Principal Shopping District Act, the BIZ Act, is needed and needed quickly. The Act
was amended in 2020 to give communities the option to include residentially assessed property, such
as condos, in a BIZ. The bill before you removes the ability to assess residential property, restoring
this tool for use in business districts.

A Business Improvement Zone is a tool to facilitate private investment by the business community. It
is not a tax, it is not tax increment financing, it is not a tax abatement, and it in no way diverts taxes
from local government or negatively impacts local finances. HB 4454 REMOVES the option to assess
residential property and all references added related to informing residential property owners. This
is a tool to facilitate private investment by commercial property owners who pay commercial
property taxes.

Unlike similar tools in Chapter 1, a BIZ is initiated by property owners, not the government. Detroit
leaders, led by Roger Penske, had been voluntarily keeping sidewalks clean, maintaining the
landscape in street medians, installing holiday lighting, and funding similar services in Downtown
Detroit’s public spaces through Clean Downtown, a voluntary BIZ started when Michigan hosted the
Superbowl in Detroit in 2006.

Our community worked with your predecessors and designed the BIZ tool to facilitate a sustained
source of private funding to help keep downtowns like Detroit clean. These property owners who
were paying to fund their shared commitment to cleaning Downtown and similar priorities needed a
mechanism to bill, collect, and administer contributions from all property owners who benefitted
from the services. They also wanted a longer-term commitment so they could provide full-time,
permanent jobs and invest in equipment. The intent of the BIZ Act was and continues to be to enable
property owners to come together to fund their priorities in their neighborhood, efficiently,
effectively, and transparently. That statute is Chapter 2 of the Principal Shopping District Act which
enables Business Improvement Zones.

Downtown Detroit Partnership downtowndetroit.org
1000 Woodward, Ste. 380
Detroit, Michigan 48226
DOWNTOWN
DETROIT
PARTNERSHIP

BUSINESS
ce IMPROVEMENT
4 ZONE

Testimony Supporting House Bill 4454 of 2023
Downtown Detroit Business Improvement Zone and Downtown Detroit Partnership
Page 2

Under the original BIZ Act, only commercial properties assessed under the general property tax act
were subject to a BIZ assessment. After close to three years of collaborating on enabling legislation
to give communities the option to include residential property, the Act was amended in spring 2020,
just a few weeks into the pandemic shutdown. To our surprise, many additional changes were
inserted that feft the BiZ Act practically unusable. Since then, no new Business Improvement Zones
have been formed in Michigan.

With our colleagues at Ann Arbor Spark, we have convened all organizations with existing Business
Improvement Zones and all that, to our knowledge, are actively pursuing new ones. We all agree that
this change is needed and that the proposed language works for our neighborhoods.

The Downtown BiZ provides close to 150,000 labor hours of services keeping downtown clean, safe,
and welcoming every year. That is more than 100 local jobs. The collective contribution by Downtown
property owners through the BIZ is nearing $45 million.

In 2014, 87% of property owners voted to approve the Downtown Detroit Biz for a 10-year period.
All the owners we have talked with recently support renewal. Our renewal vote is on hold until the
BIZ Act is restored. So are petitions to create new BlZs being initiated by property owners in at least
three other Michigan neighborhoods: Rivertown, Corktown, and Ann Arbor. Several more are being
contemplated. Please approve this bill, approve it quickly, and authorize immediate effect, paving the
way for the contributions of miilions of dollars of private funding in Michigan’s business districts by
Michigan businesses.

Thank you,

Gina Cavaliere

Chief Community Impact Officer, Downtown Detroit Partnership
Director, Downtown Detroit Business Improvement Zone

Downtown Detroit Partnership downtowndetrait.org
1000 Woodward, Ste. 380
Detroit, Michigan 48226
BUSINESS
IMPROVEMENT

ZONE

A DECADE OF BIZ IMPACT

Clean, Safe, Welcoming

2014- Present: Downtown commercial property owners
-ontribute over $40 million to fund enhanced services

DOWNTOWN DETROIT SMALL BUSINESS SUPPLEMENTAL

BIZ AMBASSADORS ENGAGEMENT LIGHTING
ENGAGE WITH 400+ EXPANDED YN.
BIZ BUSINESSES ANNUALLY SUPPLEMENTAL LIGHTING OQ

BIZ Social Worker and Safety Outreach
Ambassadors engaged with more than
350 unhoused Downtown patrons in
first 6 months

39 miles of sidewalk and 160+ blocks

@ Increased tonnage collected efficiently
and within budget

@ Empty 500+ public trash cans

Clean and stock 24 dog waste stations
=F and three dog parks

+ City of Detroit and other gov't departments
+ Detroit Riverfront Conservancy

4,500+ tons of trash collected
19,000+ instances of graffiti removect
3] 126,000+ patrons assisted

678,000+ hours worked

313.566.8250

biz@downtowndctroit.org

BIZ BUSINESS
RESOURCES

, BIZ Connects
Networking, Downtown Event
Updates, Resources

BIZ Job Fairs
b Connect more than 100 potential
i employees with BIZ businesses in

need of workers

. Monthly BIZ Bulletin
on BIZ news, program updates,
events, financial resources
and more

000

c23 BIZ BUSINESS
ROUNDTABLES

INITIATED TO
INFORM PRIORITIES

THE SPIRIT CARD

Detroit-wide community
e-gift card

@DowntownDet in

TO PROMOTE SAFETY

CREATED ONE OF A KIND

Ke NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED
HOLIDAY LIGHTING
FOR THE BIZ

LANDSCAPING

SAFETY

Downtown Detroit's Project Lighthouse
program, collaboration amongst Downtown
Detroit's public and private safety
professionals, a nationally recognized best
practice, is led by the BIZ and DDP

Ueala] SCAN TO
» #0 LEARN MORE
st ABOUT THE BIZ

=. DowntownDetroit.org/BIZ


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