A business improvement district (BID) is a defined area within which businesses are required to pay an additional tax (or levy) in order to fund projects within the district’s boundaries.
BIDs are one of the most successful economic development strategies developed for main streets and city centres introduced in the past 50 years in Canada, the US, UK and Germany.
Developing Business Improvement Districts requires a business vote for a Main Street Business Plan. While a system that allows voting is not in the current Local Government legislation, it is possible to survey businesses to get a majority of support. In this video David West of Premier Retail Marketing explains how the process of developing a BID can be followed 90% of the way under current legislation: