Improvement is the process of a thing moving from one state to a state considered to be better, usually by a change or addition that improves. The concept of improvement is important to governments and businesses, as well as to individuals.
57-427: The term "improvement" in general means "gradual, piecemeal, but cumulative betterment", which can refer to both individuals and societies as a whole. The term "improvement" historically referred to land improvement , the process of making wildland more suitable for human uses, particularly the cultivation of crops. Agricultural writers contrasted "improvement" with the traditional custom that governed farming practices at
114-405: A continual improvement process , wherein all activities of the business are constantly examined to weed out inefficiencies and better ways of carrying out tasks. At the same time, the concept of an individual self-improvement blossomed, leading to "tremendous growth in self-help publishing [and] self-improvement culture", wherein people assessed their lives in much the same way. Home improvement ,
171-455: A nonprofit organization or by a quasi-governmental entity. The governance of a BID is the responsibility of a board composed of some combination of property owners, businesses, and government officials. The management of a BID is the job of a paid administrator, usually occupying the position of an executive director of a management company. BIDs in England and Wales are funded by a levy on
228-506: A vegetation carpet to building land may result in a rise in economic growth and rising land prices , the irreversibility of lost flora and fauna because of habitat destruction , the loss of ecosystem services and resulting decline in environmental value is only considered a priori in environmental full-cost accounting . Conversion to building land is as a rule associated with road building , which in itself already brings topsoil abrasion, soil compaction and modification of
285-459: A geographic area into the hands of the few. Small businesses who fall below the BID levy threshold, although not liable to pay the BID levy, are often priced out of an area because BIDs tend to increase rental values. Larger businesses are more able to absorb these rent increases, particularly the multiple stores. BIDs have also been criticized in the past by anti-poverty groups for being too harsh on
342-608: A minimum turnout of 25% (by the number of eligible persons and by rateable value); and a majority of those that vote (by number of ballots and by rateable value). The intention of the Scottish legislation is that BIDs are not restricted to towns and city centres, to allow innovative BIDs to be developed across the country. The consultation of 2003 proposed that the BID model could be used in business parks, tourism and visitor areas, rural areas, agriculture and single-business sectors. The legislation and subsequent regulations were passed by
399-406: A problem for forests and agriculture, the expansion of structures prevents natural resources from producing in their environment. In order to prevent the loss of wildlife the forests must maintain a stable climate and the land must remain unaffected by development. Furthermore, forests can be sustained by different forest management techniques such as reforestation and preservation. Reforestation
456-431: Is focused improvement , the ensemble of activities aimed at elevating the performance of any system, especially a business system, by working on eliminating its constraints one by one while not working on non-constraints. Performance improvement focuses on measuring the output of a particular business process or procedure, then modifying the process or procedure to increase the output, increase efficiency , or increase
513-478: Is a reactive approach designed to replant trees that were previously logged within the forest boundary in attempts to re-stabilize this ecosystem. Preservation on the other hand is a proactive idea that promotes the concept of leaving the forest as is, without using this area for its ecosystem goods and services. Both of these methods to mitigate deforestation are being used throughout the world. The U.S. Forest Service predicts that urban and developing terrain in
570-471: Is a substantial consideration for land development projects. On the local level an environmental impact report (EIR) may be necessary. In the United States, federally funded projects typically require preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS). The concerns of private citizens or political action committees (PACs) can influence the scope, or even cancel, a project based on concerns like
627-432: Is because plantations of other trees as a means for water conservation and protection against wind erosion ( shelterbelts ), as a rule, lack the biodiversity of the lost forest, especially when realized as monocultures . These deforestation consequences may have lasting effects on the environment including soil stabilization and erosion control measures that may not be as effective in preserving topsoil as
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#1732765002148684-399: Is lost to concrete and asphalt surfaces, complementary interspersed garden and park areas notwithstanding. New creation of farmland (or 'agricultural land conversion') will rely on the conversion and development of previous forests , savannas or grassland . Recreation of farmland from wasteland , deserts or previous impervious surfaces is considerably less frequent because of
741-881: Is necessary to improve business. In England and Wales , BIDs were introduced through the Local Government Act 2003 , and subsequent regulations in 2004. The Circle Initiative, a five-year scheme funded by the London Development Agency , set up the first pilot BIDs, five in London, all of which had successful ballots by March 2006. The first UK BID 'Kingston First' was established in Kingston upon Thames in January 2005. In October 2007 there were 36 proposed or operational BIDs across Greater London, and by late 2014 there were over 180 in operation in
798-594: Is not a tax, as taxes fund the government. BID funds are collected and used for the exclusive benefit of the industry that pays the assessment. The BID is often funded primarily through the assessment but can also draw on other public and private funding streams. BIDs may go by other names, such as business improvement area ( BIA ), business revitalization zone ( BRZ ), business improvement zone (BIZ), community improvement district ( CID ), special services area ( SSA ), or special improvement district ( SID ). These districts typically fund services which are defined by
855-475: Is the single greatest cause of extinction of terrestrial species . An example of land conversion being a chief cause of the critically endangered status of a carnivore is the reduction in habitat for the African wild dog , Lycaon pictus . Deforestation is also the reason for loss of a natural habitat , with large numbers of trees being cut down for residential and commercial use. Urban growth has become
912-601: The Mayor of London , Transport for London , Westminster City Council , the Metropolitan Police and local neighbours. Better Bankside was the third BID to be established in the UK, the second in London and the first south of the river. It was founded in 2005, and underwent a successful re-ballot in 2010 with 82% of businesses in favour. It won awards including Best Visitor Information Initiatives Silver Award in 2008,
969-476: The Scottish Government 's BIDs programme, providing central support to developing BIDs, promoting and encouraging the development of BIDs across the country, whilst also working with operational BIDs to assist them in delivering for their local communities and contributing to sustainable inclusive economic growth. The Scottish Government provides a grant to local groups of up to £20,000 to help with
1026-508: The value of the process . Most are depreciable, but some land improvements are not able to be depreciated because a useful life cannot be determined. Home building and containment are two of the most common and the oldest types of development. In an urban context, land development furthermore includes: A landowner or developer of a project of any size, will often want to maximise profits , minimise risk , and control cash flow . This "profitable energy" means identifying and developing
1083-588: The Best Community Project 2011 and Best Partnership Award 2012 in the Mayor of London 's BID Awards, and was short-listed for Best Marketing & Communications Campaign, Transport for London Smarter Travel Awards 2010. The Better Bankside BID was set up and is managed by The Means, a regeneration consultancy company. Business Improvement Districts Scotland is the national organisation and voice for BIDs in Scotland, responsible for delivering
1140-483: The GDV (that which one could build on the land), land value is concurrently enhanced. Land value is highly sensitive to supply and demand (for the end product), build costs, planning and affordable housing contributions, and so on. Understanding the intricacies of the development system and the effect of "value drivers" can result in massive differences in the landowner's sale value. Land development puts more emphasis on
1197-732: The Scottish Parliament in 2006 and 2007 respectively. In March 2006, the Scottish Government announced funding for six pilot BIDs in Scotland: Bathgate (town centre), Clackmannanshire (business parks), Edinburgh (city centre), Falkirk (town centre), Glasgow (city centre) and Inverness (city centre). There are currently thirty seven operational BIDs in Scotland with a further twenty four in development. The operational BIDs include thirty one town and city centre BIDs and three business park BIDs. In March 2014
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#17327650021481254-428: The U.S. will expand by 41 percent in the year 2060. These conditions cause displacement for the wildlife and limited resources for the environment to maintain a sustainable balance. Business improvement district A business improvement district ( BID ) is a defined area within whichever businesses elect to pay an additional fee (or assessment) in order to fund projects within the district's boundaries. A BID
1311-526: The United Kingdom. This number increased to 303 throughout the UK by December 2018. The New West End Company is the management and promotional company for London's Bond Street , Oxford Street and Regent Street . As one of the largest BIDs in Europe, New West End Company brings together the commercial interests of over 600 retailers, property owners and West End businesses working closely with
1368-741: The United States was the Downtown Development District in New Orleans established in 1974, and there were 1,200 across the country by 2011. Other countries with BIDs include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Jamaica, Serbia, Albania, Germany, Ireland, Singapore, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The process for creating a BID varies from one jurisdiction to another. In the United States , it generally involves three steps. First, typically 51% or more of
1425-406: The best scheme for the local marketplace, whilst satisfying the local planning process. Development analysis puts development prospects and the development process itself under the microscope, identifying where enhancements and improvements can be introduced. These improvements aim to align with best design practice, political sensitivities, and the inevitable social requirements of a project, with
1482-439: The dawn of civilization, the process of land development has elaborated the progress of improvements on a piece of land based on codes and regulations, particularly housing complexes. In an economic context, land development is also sometimes advertised as land improvement or land amelioration . It refers to investment making land more usable by humans. For accounting purposes it refers to any variety of projects that increase
1539-475: The degraded or missing fertile soil in the latter. Starting from forests, land is made arable by assarting or slash-and-burn . Agricultural development furthermore includes: Because the newly created farmland is more prone to erosion than soil stabilized by tree roots , such a conversion may mean irreversible crossing of an ecological threshold . The resulting deforestation is also not easily compensated for by reforestation or afforestation . This
1596-431: The development of the BID. The legislation in Scotland (The Planning etc. (Scotland) Act 2006 ) is different from the England and Wales legislation in that it allows property owners as well as occupiers to be included in a BID. There are also differences in the timescales, ballot and reballot criteria, and the legislative requirements of the BID proposer. In Scotland, for a ballot to be successful it must meet four criteria:
1653-403: The different people involved. The poor family who were denied a crucial means of subsistence did not regard the newly enclosed fields as “better”. Many theories and practices exist with respect to improvement in business. For example, business process improvement is a systematic approach to help an organisation optimise its underlying processes to achieve more efficient results. One such approach
1710-409: The early modern period. Furthermore, in contemporary use, the notion of “improvement” is assumed to be positive. This assumption has limited the critical attention given to the history of the idea and the practices associated with it. For example, the enclosure of common land for private use was understood as an “improvement” in the eighteenth century. But this had both positive and negative effects for
1767-476: The economic representatives of an industry petition the local government to create the BID. Second, the local government determines that the economic majority of an industry want the BID. Third, the local government enacts legislation creating the BID. Prior to this occurring, state legislatures need to grant local units the authority to create BIDs. The operating budgets of BIDs range from a few thousand dollars to tens of millions of dollars. A BID may be operated by
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1824-478: The effectiveness of the process or procedure. Quality improvement is one of the four aspects of the concept of quality management . A crucial component of professional development is evaluation. Recently, we have seen a push for evaluation systems to be used to sort and fire teachers—a supposed quick fix, but one that ignores the vast majority of dedicated educators. To be effective, an evaluation system must identify strengths and weaknesses, so that all teachers can get
1881-421: The enactment of laws intended to benefit businesses that are established in the area. An improvement trust , a type of legal trust created for the improvement of something, may be settled for the benefit of a municipal area. Land improvement Land development is the alteration of landscape in any number of ways such as: Land development has a history dating to Neolithic times around 8,000 BC. From
1938-445: The expected economic development as a result of the process; "land conversion" tries to focus on the general physical and biological aspects of the land use change . "Land improvement" in the economic sense can often lead to land degradation from the ecological perspective. Land development and the change in land value does not usually take into account changes in the ecology of the developed area. While conversion of (rural) land with
1995-923: The first of which were formed in 1987, with the amendment of The City of Winnipeg Act . In the province of Alberta , there are 15 BIAs in Calgary and 13 BIAs in Edmonton . In the province of Saskatchewan , there are two BIDs in Regina and five BIDs in Saskatoon . There are nine Business Improvement Districts in the Halifax Regional Municipality . BIDs have also become a powerful lobby group, lobbying government for improvements such as new sidewalks, trees, park benches and other restorations. BIDs can also lobby different levels of government for significant changes to their area if they feel it
2052-724: The first tourism BID was delivered in Loch Ness and Inverness. The first themed BID in Scotland was delivered in December 2013, the Sauchiehall Street Evening Economy BID. In 2016 the world's first food and drink BID was delivered in East Lothian with the levy based on the number of full-time employees, also a first. The development and interest in the BIDs model in Scotland continues to grow and
2109-403: The five boroughs. BIDs exist in almost every one of the top 50 largest cities in the United States, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC. Minneapolis and Boston have been the last of the top 20 largest regions to adopt a business improvement district. The State of Wisconsin has adopted the most for smaller towns, with about 90 in
2166-524: The flexibility of the legislation and the model is now being recognised with the development of the Borders Railway BIDs Corridor, and four canal BIDs led by Scottish Waterways Trust . In 2017 BIDs Scotland published The National Report on BIDs in Scotland which covers the types of BIDs, number of businesses, levels of employment in BIDs in Scotland and the contribution they make to sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Six of
2223-468: The foundations of social order". Friedrich Nietzsche criticized this concept of "improvement" in his notes published in The Will to Power , asserting that it created a false and self-serving sense of human superiority over nature, and that the "civilizing" of man was actually a "softening". In the 20th century, the concept of improvement expanded even further. Businesses developed philosophies of having
2280-411: The ground". This limited agricultural use of the term changed in the 17th century, when "its metaphoric range was extended to include a host of social and political reforms aimed at growth, development, or perfection". In short order, the term "improvement" became "nothing less than shorthand for the civilizing process", and thereafter "played an important role in eighteenth- century European debates over
2337-470: The homeless and poor who may congregate around businesses. BIDs have also been known to be opposed to street vendors such as hot dog vendors and chip wagons. In London, street traders who sold small items to tourists were barred from Oxford Street in London . President of Civic Voice , Griff Rhys Jones criticised the creation of a BID in central London neighbourhood saying that is undemocratic: "Neither
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2394-399: The industry collecting the assessment, and may include work perceived by some businesses as being inadequately performed by government with its existing tax revenues, such as cleaning streets, providing security, making capital improvements, construction of pedestrian and streetscape enhancements, and marketing the area. The services provided by BIDs are supplemental to those already provided by
2451-421: The land's development potential . This is done via a residual development appraisal or residual valuation. The residual appraisal calculates the sale value of the end product (the gross development value or GDV) and hypothetically deducts costs, including planning and construction costs, finance costs and developer's profit. The "residue", or leftover proportion, represents the land value. Therefore, in maximising
2508-779: The loss of an endangered species’ habitat. In most cases, the land development project will be allowed to proceed if mitigation requirements are met. Mitigation banking is the most prevalent example, and necessitates that the habitat will have to be replaced at a greater rate than it is removed. This increase in total area helps to establish the new ecosystem, though it will require time to reach maturity. The extent, and type of land use directly affects wildlife habitat and thereby impacts local and global biodiversity . Human alteration of landscapes from natural vegetation (e.g. wilderness ) to any other use can result in habitat loss , degradation , and fragmentation , all of which can have devastating effects on biodiversity. Land conversion
2565-556: The municipality. The revenue derives from an assessment voted on by commercial property owners, industry members (BIDs can be formed around industries, not just physical properties), and in some cases, residential property owners. The first BID was the Bloor West Village Business Improvement Area, established in Toronto in 1970 as an initiative by local private business. The first BID in
2622-507: The necessary support to improve their practice. Your commitment and ability to improve defines your potential which is of interest to anyone who is a customer, employer, stakeholder as like a craftsman his ability to improve represents the marked improvement in his work from one to the next. Governments often use language proposing an improvement of processes or areas. In some places a business improvement district or tourism improvement district may be incorporated into urban zoning , with
2679-474: The number of eligible persons (the headcount) and by rateable value and a majority of those that vote by number of ballots and by rateable value must vote in favour. This ensures that the interests of large and small businesses are protected." By 1996 there were over 1,000 BIDs in the United States. New York City has 76 BIDs, the most of any city; in NYC, BIDs invest $ 159 million annually in neighborhoods throughout
2736-406: The occupiers rather than the owners of the properties within the area. If voted in by local businesses, the BID levy is an extension to existing non-domestic business-rates. "In England and Wales, for a BID to go ahead the ballot must be won on two counts: straight majority and majority of rateable value. In Scotland for a ballot to be successful it must meet four criteria, a minimum turnout of 25% by
2793-621: The overarching objective of increasing land values and profit margins on behalf of the landowner or developer. Development analysis can add significantly to the value of land and development, and as such is a crucial tool for landowners and developers. It is an essential step in Kevin A. Lynch 's 1960 book The Image of the City , and is considered to be essential to realizing the value potential of land. The landowner can share in additional planning gain (significant value uplift) via an awareness of
2850-424: The people who live there, nor the many intriguing small shops and businesses, have been allowed to vote or have even been consulted.". "I am wary of this initiative because of what may become unintended consequences (or indeed intended consequences) that help one sort of business (the property letting business) but will cause problems to smaller businesses and the large and wholly integrated residential population of
2907-498: The previous intact vegetation . Massive land conversion without proper consideration of ecological and geological consequences may lead to disastrous results , such as: While deleterious effects can be particularly visible when land is developed for industrial or mining usage, agro-industrial and settlement use can also have a massive and sometimes irreversible impact on the affected ecosystem. Examples of land restoration / land rehabilitation counted as land development in
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#17327650021482964-433: The process or result of improving the efficiency, livability, or market value of a personal dwelling, has also become a substantial industry. Sarah Tarlow , a professor of archaeology, has argued that the idea of “improvement” is so familiar to us today that it seems natural. It is therefore difficult to fully understand the history of “improvement” as a concept and to appreciate that it was a genuinely new way of thinking in
3021-588: The sixteen German Bundeslander (Federal States) introduced the requisite legal framework to create BIDs: Hamburg, Bremen, Hessen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein. BID projects in implementation exist only in a few German cities so far – e.g. in Flensburg, Hamburg and Giessen. Whilst BIDs have been heralded for improving the trading environment, BIDs have also received noteworthy criticism. BIDs have been accused of being unaccountable and by their very nature undemocratic, concentrating power in
3078-549: The soil's chemical composition through soil stabilization , creation of impervious surfaces and, subsequently, (polluted) surface runoff water. Construction activity often effectively seals off a larger part of the soil from rainfall and the nutrient cycle , so that the soil below buildings and roads is effectively "consumed" and made infertile . With the notable exception of attempts at rooftop gardening and hanging gardens in green buildings (possibly as constituents of green urbanism ), vegetative cover of higher plants
3135-515: The state , 25 of those being in Milwaukee and the rest throughout the state. It is estimated that there are more than 500 BIDs in Canada, including more than 270 in the province of Ontario . Toronto has 83 BIAs within its city limits. Montreal – where BIAs are called Sociétés de développement commercial [ fr ] – has more than 25. Winnipeg has 16 "Business Improvement Zones,"
3192-447: The strict sense are still rare. However, renaturation , reforestation , stream restoration may all contribute to a healthier environment and quality of life, especially in densely populated regions. The same is true for planned vegetation like parks and gardens , but restoration plays a particular role, because it reverses previous conversions to built and agricultural areas. The environmental impact of land use and development
3249-516: The time. The belief in agricultural "improvement" was the belief that the earth could be made more fruitful. More specifically, it was the belief that "the knowledge of nature would allow the best possible use of resources". It emerged in late medieval England and later shaped the colonies of the British Empire, through what Richard Drayton describes as "enlightened imperialism". The British believed "that they ultimately knew better than those on
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