The Downtown Business Improvement District of the City of Laredo postponed taking formal action on a proposed 2024–2034 Service and Improvement Assessment Plan on Dec. 11, 2024, after board members said they had not yet received the required property-owner signatures.

The board’s chair said the group is “very, very, very, very, very close” to meeting the signature threshold but declined to move forward without signatures in hand because “that’s what the statute requires,” and the board would not take the motion until evidence was presented at the meeting.

The hearing on the assessment plan is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall; however, board members also agreed to hold a special meeting next week to finalize signatures and consider the resolution. Board members settled on a Tuesday meeting at 5:30 p.m. and the chair said staff will circulate a new agenda and confirm availability, including outreach to an absent board member named Jack Crow.

Staff reported the district mailed 641 letters to properties within the BID boundary and said 313 of those letters were returned. A staff member said the letters were sent to everyone within the district but noted the mailed notice specified that the proposed assessment would apply only to commercial property owners. Staff also said some Spanish-speaking property owners contacted the office seeking further explanation of the plan.

Board members reviewed public input collected over recent years as context for the plan, including the 2017 comprehensive plan, the 2019 City of Laredo downtown parking study, work with the International Downtown Alliance earlier in 2024, a downtown summit in April and a BID survey that drew more than 200 responses. The chair said the board had used that input and board feedback to shape the proposed service and improvement program.

The board explicitly declined to take any formal vote on the assessment or resolution at the Dec. 11 meeting because it did not have the signatures required by statute. The board set a special meeting to seek final signatures and to consider the resolution prior to the Dec. 19 hearing.