City budget plan would boost potential business improvement district for Carytown

Jonathan Spiers March 18, 2026 0

An effort to explore a business improvement district for Carytown would get a financial boost in the city budget that Mayor Danny Avula rolled out last week.

The proposed spending plan for Richmond for fiscal year 2027 includes more than $5 million for business and economic development initiatives, including $125,000 to support the potential assessment district for Carytown that’s been in an exploratory phase for several years.

The funds would serve as seed money to establish the district, in which businesses and property owners in Carytown would pay an additional fee – on top of the taxes they already pay to the city – for enhanced services such as sidewalk cleaning and maintenance, trash removal, marketing, and other needs resulting from the area’s higher commercial activity.

Should a majority of businesses and property owners in the corridor support such a district, which has yet to be formally proposed, the $125,000 from the city would provide a local match for the assessment amount brought in in the program’s first year.

The funding was requested by City Councilmember Stephanie Lynch, who represents Carytown and has been assisting the Carytown Merchants Association on the exploratory effort for years. Lynch said the outreach and consensus-building required to establish a business improvement district, or BID, has proven too time-consuming for CMA’s members to accomplish on their own.

“They were spending an ungodly amount of time trying to do the work of what a Venture Richmond would do, like stakeholder engagement, education for all the merchants,” Lynch said, referring to the nonprofit group that the city worked with to establish a similar special assessment district for downtown that has since been expanded to Manchester.

“These are small business owners that just don’t have that type of time,” Lynch said of CMA. “It became apparent, at least to me, that we needed to engage with an entity that does this, and that entity is Venture Richmond.”

The BID would cover Carytown’s nine-block commercial stretch and be similar to the special assessment district for downtown and Manchester. Lynch said the effort needs at least 70% buy-in from the 200 or so businesses in Carytown, as well as its property owners, before a BID could be established.

“I can’t just put in an ordinance and establish a BID without having at least 70% of the property owners buying into it, so we really do need that stakeholder-engagement management and the experts who can establish the BID and be the fiscal agent for it, and that’s Venture,” Lynch said.

Lisa Sims, Venture Richmond’s CEO, said the nonprofit has agreed to sit in on meetings and advise CMA about the process. CMA President Amanda Sloan said discussions are ongoing, and that the group appreciates the support.

“We are excited the (city) administration is providing support and helping navigate discussions for Carytown,” Sloan said in an emailed statement. “While discussions are still ongoing, we welcome the city’s outreach plan to the businesses and look forward to a collaborative partnership that helps this community continue to shine.”

Lynch said the $125,000 would help establish a BID by providing matching funds that would jumpstart improvements once the program is in place. Lynch said the city provides similar matches for the special assessment district that spans over 500 square blocks downtown and in Manchester.

If kept in the budget, which city council will amend and adopt over the next several weeks, the funds wouldn’t be the first that the city has put toward the Carytown BID effort.

In 2024, council OK’d $35,000 for the Richmond Economic Development Authority to hire a consultant to assist with outreach and develop a process for establishing a BID, which councilmembers said at the time could be adapted and applied to other business districts in the city that want to establish one.

Lynch said that consultant came back with recommendations for the BID’s assessment structure, which can be based on gross sales, flat fees or a tiered approach, and by property size or property value. She said the engagement piece remains unfinished, and emphasized that the remaining work to be done would determine whether a Carytown BID becomes a reality.

In addition to the BID funds, the proposed budget for FY27 includes funding for other business and economic development initiatives. They include $4.9 million in economic performance grant funds, and $250,000 for the city’s commercial façade improvement program.

Budget workshops for council to review the budget and propose amendments get underway today (March 18) and continue through April. An initial public hearing is scheduled March 23, and a final hearing on the amended budget is set for May 11.