Following the third public hearing and final reading of the ordinance to establish a downtown Business Improvement District (BID), Fremont City Council voted on Nov. 8 to amend the ordinance by excluding single family residential homes and move forward.
The BID will be funded by assessments on real properties’ valuations within the BID and collected along with County property tax. The City will notify property owners within district boundaries by mail and enclose the form required to verify exemption from the tax with the Board of Equalization.
Mayor Scott Getzschman said, “The idea to create a BID was first brought forward more than three years ago by the Downtown Improvement District (DID) board. I want to thank the board for all their hard work and for working with the City to get the BID established. The BID will help insure Fremont’s downtown remains a place where businesses want to be located and where residents want to patronize.”
The exclusion of single family residential homes will change the calculation of the special assessment for the district. The revised assessment will be set at the December 13th Board of Equalization following the City Council meeting.
The BID will replace the existing DID that has been actively working to develop and promote downtown Fremont for over 10 years. The authority given to the City Council to establish a business improvement district is through the Nebraska Business Improvement District Act Neb. Rev. Stat. § 19-4015 – 19-4038 (reissue 2015).