ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) —

New faces on the Asheville City Council wouldn’t have changed the result of this month’s vote to approve a downtown Business Improvement District, or BID.

Of the six candidates running for three seats this November, only incumbent Council Member Kim Roney opposed the plan. She cast the lone dissenting vote on June 11, when the council approved the BID, 6-1.

Incumbent Council Member Sage Turner, who is seeking re-election, voted in favor of the BID, and four challengers — Kevan Frazier, Bo Hess, Tod Leaven and C.J. Domingo — all told 828newsNOW they would have voted in favor of the BID as well.

Creation of the Business Improvement District has proven to be one of the more divisive issues in recent memory. It will collect a special property tax in the downtown area to use toward public safety and cleanliness efforts led by an appointed board.

Backers from the local business community said it will supplement city services in key areas and be important to economic development. But critics, including dozens of opponents who appeared at public meetings, questioned putting an appointed board in charge of day-to-day decisions on spending taxpayer dollars, they equated it to privatizing public spaces and raised concerns about the role downtown “ambassadors” or “community stewards” will play, especially in interactions with people who are unhoused.

The opposition included two acts of vandalism — one before and one after the June 11 vote — targeting the vehicles of BID task force members at their homes.

Still, the four City Council challengers all told 828newsNOW they would have voted with the council majority in approving the BID.

“What I don’t like about this process is that Asheville was not giving the services that they should have,” Leaven said. “Business and land owners felt like they needed to take matters into their own hands. I would be unhappy, but I would have voted yes.”

“I was 100 percent for the BID, then I started talking to people that had concerns,” said Hess, a psychiatric social worker and clinical supervisor. “I went to Minneapolis… and Cincinatti to see their BID.” Hess said the visits led him to believe the BID would “have the power to work for all of us.”

“I think by the second vote I would have voted yes,” said Domingo, who works in logistics for Loomis Securitas. “The people in downtown want to have more say.” He added, “I think it’s worth trying.”

“I supported the Business Improvement District,” said Frazier, the Executive Director of Programs in Asheville for Western Carolina University and a game store owner. “The important thing is the request proposal for … who gets to direct the BID.”