New York City Council     Members

The bill would require the Department of Small Business Services (SBS) to complete an assessment of the state of storefront businesses in at least twenty community districts in the City once every three years. The bill would further require SBS in coordination with the department of finance and city planning to produce a report containing information related to storefront businesses. The report would include information related to storefront business environment, such as the number of storefront businesses, the types of economic activities, the numbers of employees at such storefronts, annual sales and sales tax, the number of vacant storefront businesses, and district demographics.

  • Enacted

History

City Council
Returned Unsigned by Mayor
Administration
City Charter Rule Adopted
City Council
Sent to Mayor by Council
City Council
Pass
Approved by Council
Committee on Small Business
Hearing Held by Committee
Committee on Small Business
Amendment Proposed by Comm
Committee on Small Business
Amended by Committee
Committee on Small Business
Pass
Approved by Committee
Committee on Small Business
Hearing Held by Committee
Committee on Small Business
Laid Over by Committee
City Council
Referred to Comm by Council
City Council
Introduced by Council

Int. No. 1049-A

 

By Council Members Rivera, the Speaker (Council Member Johnson), Yeger, Ampry-Samuel, Levin, Levine, Rosenthal, Kallos, Cohen, Louis, Perkins and Chin

 

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring the department of small business services to assess the state of storefront businesses

 

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

 

Section 1. Chapter 10 of title 22 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 22-1003 to read as follows:

§ 22-1003 State of storefront businesses assessment. a. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:  

Storefront business. The term “storefront business” means a “ground floor commercial premises” as such term is defined in § 11-3001.

Storefront business assessment. The term “storefront business assessment” means an analysis of a community district’s storefront business environment, including, but not limited to, the following factors:

(i) district demographics;

(ii) number of storefront businesses;

(iii) types of goods or services provided by storefront businesses and consumer spending by each type;

(iv) number of vacant storefront properties;

(v) physical conditions of storefront businesses, including interior and exterior conditions of businesses, both occupied by commercial tenants and vacant;

(vi) built environment of the community district;

(vii) challenges facing commercial tenants of storefront businesses;

(viii) storefront business involvement with community based organizations; and

(viii) opportunities for promoting various types of commercial uses and improving the built environment within the community district.

b. Beginning October 1, 2019 and no less frequently than once every three years thereafter, the department shall commence a storefront business assessment in at least twenty community districts in the city. As part of such assessment, the department shall distribute to and collect from storefront business owners in the district, a survey that shall include, but not be limited to, the following requests for information:

1.   the business owners’ demographic information;

2.  the business owners’ access to, and the accessibility of, information made publicly available by the department and other agencies to support storefront businesses;

3.   business entity type and whether each storefront business is part of a franchise or chain;

4.   number of owners and number of employees of each storefront business; and

5.   number of years each storefront business has been located at its current location.

Such assessment shall include input by at least one community based organization serving the district’s storefront business community, or if no organization is available, a record of outreach to at least three organizations requesting their participation.

c. By September 1, 2019, and every three years thereafter, the department shall submit to the Council a list of the community districts for which storefront assessments shall be commenced and the criteria for such selections.  At the completion of each assessment, the department shall make the results of such assessment including all disaggregated non-identifying survey data, available on its website. 

d. The department, in consultation with the departments of city planning and finance, shall produce a report containing information related to storefront businesses citywide, which shall be disaggregated by community district, and include but need not be limited to the following factors: (i) the number of storefront businesses; (ii) the types of economic activity being conducted at such storefronts; (iii) data relating to numbers of employees at such storefronts; (iv) data relating to annual sales and sales tax data at such storefronts; (v) the number of vacant storefront businesses; and (vi) demographics. The department shall post such report on its website no later than 24 months after the local law that added this section takes effect and shall update such report annually.

§ 2.  This local law takes effect immediately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NB

LS #6028

5/3/18 5:37pm