Several months after City of Pittsburgh voters opted to increase their property taxes in order to fund the Carnegie Libraries and after residents and businesses in the South Side never got a chance to see if a Neighborhood Improvement District (NID) concept would come to pass and what higher taxes would do for improvements in that part of the City, the next improvement district is being proposed in Lawrenceville this week in City Council.

There are still only two improvement districts in the City, one in Downtown and one in Oakland. Others have been tried in East Liberty, West End, and the aforementioned South Side. If the opposition to the proposed Lawrenceville BID reaches the point where 40% or more of the affected property file objections to the plan then the BID plan does not move forward.

According to published reports the fee assessed on businesses would be based on the linear storefront width rather than on property value which would likely see big changes as the new assessments would likely be in effect about the time the approval process would be completed.