January 17th, 2025 Update:
On January 16th, the City of Asheville provided additional documents in response to our public records request. These documents included the Draft Contract and Exhibit for the organization chosen to operate the Downtown BID.
After reviewing the provided documents, the Sunshine Labs team noticed the Draft Contract included a term of January 27th, 2025 to December 31st, 2028. This would represent a 4 year contract term, though the City Council vote considered a 3 year contract term.
We reached out to City Staff for clarification. The City confirmed that the listed date range was an error in the draft contract language, and the City anticipates revising the final contract term to January 27th, 2025 to January 26th, 2028.
You can view these additional documents at the links below:
December 16th, 2024 Update:
On December 11th, Patrick submitted a follow-up request for the scoring rubric completed by City Staff to score both proposals the City received. We received responsive documents back on December 12th, and you can view them at the following link.
November 22nd, 2024 Update:
On November 18th, Patrick Conant submitted a public records request to the City of Asheville on behalf of Sunshine Labs. He asked the City to provide any bids received in response to their RFP to administer the Downtown Business Improvement District (BID). We’re happy to report that the City provided the responsive documents on November 21st. The City received two bids in response to their RFP — we’re including a link to the public records request and links to the PDFs of each document at the buttons below.
Asheville City Council, Residents, Businesses, and Organizations,
Asheville City Council is considering a proposal to establish a Business Improvement District (BID) in Downtown Asheville. A BID is a municipal service district that collects additional property tax in an area to provide additional services. As outlined in NCGS 160A‑536(d), cities have the option to provide services to a BID directly, or, as proposed in Downtown Asheville, those funds can be allocated to a private entity to administer.
The team at Sunshine Labs puts forth this “Open Letter” to share specific concerns regarding public participation, transparency, and accountability as City Council considers whether to advance the Downtown Asheville BID.
April 22nd 2024: The Sunshine Labs Team has published an update to our Open Letter in response to changes proposed by the Chamber and BID Steering Committee.
