While many transitioning area residents and businesses have organized to manage development, the High Line developers were unable to generate adequate support for a business improvement district (BID). In 2009, The High Line Improvement District Steering Committee sought community support for the BID with a plan for the BID to cover "park maintenance services on the High Line itself and possibly the access points to the High Line, not the more usual street level, district-wide security and sanitation services that most BIDs focus on." (High Line FAQs)

"The $1 million from the improvement district would be raised through a two-tiered assessment structure. Properties in a Subdistrict A, closest to and benefiting most directly from the High Line, would pay an annual assessment of about 9 cents per square foot for most properties. In a Subdistrict B, further away and less directly benefited by the High Line, properties would pay about 3 cents per square foot. Storage and warehouse properties throughout the district would also pay about 3 cents per square foot...Nonprofit owners who use their property for nonprofit purposes would be exempt from the assessment. Commercial property owners could pass the assessment cost on to their tenants." (Amateau)

The High Line park in New York opened a second section, doubling the length of the walkway to one mile. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images North America

Efforts to secure the necessary 51% approval were unsuccessful and the proposal was ultimately withdrawn.

"Following these public outreach efforts, it was decided to put the proposal on hold. While many strongly supported the concept, important concerns were also raised. Friends of the High Line has always been a community organization, and the members of the Steering Committee are community members first and foremost. Friends of the High Line will continue to work with the community to develop a diversified revenue stream for the High Line's future, so that the park can always be maintained and operated at the level necessary to make it a treasured asset to its community and to the city as a whole." (thehighline.org)

Opposition came from local business owners who couldn't afford the increase in taxes in the current struggling economy, priced-out art gallery owners, as well as landlords unwilling to pass on increased taxes to tenants.

“...[to] assume that the neighborhood owes them something for the benefit that they perceive they have brought us, I think is inappropriate,” Joshua Mack, who owns a four-story townhouse on W. 21st St., said.

“I don’t think that it’s fair that this select number of properties should be taxed for [the High Line],” said D. Cahn, who owns an industrial warehouse on W. 27th St.

“The critical mass of galleries in Chelsea is something that is very important to New York’s identity as a creative center,” Mack, an art critic explained, noting that the proposal hasn’t addressed the tax’s effect on the arts community. “It’s just another nail in the coffin of something that is very vibrant.” (Hedlund, The Villager)

Sources: