SID in village is becoming a reality?

South Orange trustees are on track to introduce an ordinance Feb. 15 to create a special-improvement district, or SID, to manage the village’s downtown.

An SID is a nonprofit entity that recruits and promotes businesses.

Property owners in the designated area pay a separate tax, or special assessment, based on the assessed value of their properties, to help finance the SID.

Trustee Nancy Gould said Jan. 24 she expected her colleagues will support the idea, a view that she based on a straw poll by officials.

Some in the business community have urged officials not to lay an extra financial burden on them at a time when the economy still is struggling. But, village officials have said the government will financially support the SID.

Gould said she favors the SID because it will bring “downtown to the next level.”

— Philip Sean Curran