Strategy in Action

The Silver Spring Business Improvement District (BID) was an attempt driven by a major developer to replicate the approach of other BIDs throughout the country in the Fenton Village District in downtown Silver Spring. Fenton Village includes many small businesses; 80 percent of business owners are BIPOC-owned and many are run by immigrants, including a large number of Ethiopian establishments.. Shortly after the Montgomery County Council passed legislation establishing the BID in July 2021, a number of groups, including the Montgomery County Black Collective, the Montgomery County Black Business Council and the Maryland Black Chamber of Commerce, wrote to the council expressing concerns about the lack of representation by Black-owned and small businesses on the proposed board . The County Executive vetoed the legislation, arguing that the BID did not meet the county’s stated goals for racial equity and gave too much power to large property owners. However, the county council overrode the veto and amended the BID boundaries to exclude certain blocks of Fenton Village.

The original BID’s model required that the board be made up of a nine-member BID Board consisting of: three representatives of business owners who have properties assessed at $20 million or more; two members who represent businesses with properties assessed at less than $20 million; one member would represent a business employing more than 50 full-time workers; and three members would represent businesses with 50 or fewer full-time employees. While the nine-member BID board would include small business owners, concerns were raised that property owners with the largest and most expensive property would not only have the plurality of seats on the board, but also the majority of votes.

There was extensive community opposition to that model, so much so that it passed only as a local county (Montgomery County) law, rather than a law applicable to the whole State. After the County Council approved the BID, the State of Maryland amended the law to:

1. Expand the board to be more inclusive than originally stated;

2. Requires all property owners and business to be notified of the intent to create a BID (rather than Simply demonstrating that 50% +1 of businesses approve of the BID); and,

3. Allow small businesses to elect their own representation on the Board.

The new law was retroactive. The Silver Spring BID was given one year to come into compliance. However the original proponents never attempted to come into compliance with the new law. As of July 1, 2023 the original SSBID application is null and void.