KVIG Informative

A group of Arts District stakeholders launched a petition this fall to create a new taxing district for safety, cleanup and marketing. The neighborhood’s own nonprofit association voted against it.

A group of Arts District stakeholders launched a petition effort Sept. 1 to create a Business Improvement District that would fund additional safety, cleanliness and marketing services across the neighborhood, according to a news release announcing the petition.

The proposed district would stretch from East Bonneville Avenue on the north to West Wyoming Avenue on the south, bordered on the east by parcels along Las Vegas Boulevard and on the west by the Union Pacific Railroad tracks — covering the bulk of the 18b Arts District.

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The board of the 18b Las Vegas Arts District Neighborhood Association, a nonprofit representing artists, business owners and community members in the district, voted to formally oppose the proposed Business Improvement District, citing concerns about affordability for the people who live and work there.

The district would be a stakeholder-funded initiative rather than a City of Las Vegas program, according to the petition announcement, meaning property or business owners within the designated boundaries would pay into it directly.

The neighborhood association also raised concerns about the composition of the proposed district’s leadership structure, questioning who would actually control decision-making once the Business Improvement District is formed.

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Business Improvement Districts are a tool used in cities nationally to fund supplemental services, such as extra sanitation, private security or marketing campaigns, within a defined commercial area, typically financed through a special assessment on property or business owners inside district boundaries.

The same stakeholders who built the Arts District’s identity over two decades are now split over who should pay to maintain it, and who gets to decide how that money gets spent. The petition effort is still underway. The neighborhood’s own nonprofit has already told its organizers it doesn’t have their support.