Working
Group Takes Major Steps in New Downtown Management Plan |
By Jorge Casuso
February 19 -- It’s not often that a tearsheet from
a public meeting is signed and hailed as a manifesto. But that’s
what happened at a meeting last week of the working group hammering
out a new management plan for the Downtown.
More than a year in the works, the plan seemed to come together at Wednesday’s
meeting, as working group members unanimously agreed on a number of key points,
including the makeup of the new board that will run the proposed assessment
district.
“This was huge,” said Brad Segal the consultant helping Bayside
officials put together the new plan. “Governance has probably been the
number one issue in this deal.”
But if there was general agreement on key issues, several new concerns were
raised after Bayside officials met with some of the major stakeholders who will
help bankroll the $3.7 million in new assessments.
“These guys must be on board, otherwise, this goes nowhere,” said
Segal who heads Progressive Urban Management Associates, Inc. “They are
receptive. They want another meeting.”
The main concern aired by the stakeholders was the length of time the new assessment
district would be in place -- 20 years.
Major property owners who would be levied the biggest assessments ideally wanted
the new district to be in place for only five years, but would likely accept
ten, Segal told the working group.
“This is an important issue to them,” Segal said.
After a short debate, the working group unanimously agreed to retain the proposed
20-year district, but to require a vote by the property owners after ten years
to determine if the district should continue.
The working group also took up concerns by some hotel representatives who worry
that competitors outside the district would benefit from the $1.3 million “ambassador
program” to inform visitors and help keep the streets safe and $500,000
in additional marketing bankrolled by the assessments.
The group floated the possibility of structuring a new “business license
tax mechanism” that would help them pay for the “tangible benefits.”
“Obviously, there’s a big benefit to the hotels,” said Bill
Tucker, a Bayside Board member who sits on the working group.
But the biggest step taken by the group Wednesday was agreeing on the make-up
of the new 11-member board, six of whose members would be appointed by the City
Council, six by the property owners and one by the City Manager.
According to what Segal referred to as “the manifesto,” the board
will be composed of a mix of Downtown property and businesses owners and Downtown
and Santa Monica residents. The full board would make informal recommendations
to the City Council and property owners on possible appointments.
Under the plan, there also would be representatives on the board from each
of the three zones of the proposed district, which stretches from the east side
of Ocean Avenue to the east side of 7th Street and from the north side of Wilshire
Boulevard and the 10 Freeway.
The proposed district -- divided into a zone comprised by Third Street Promenade;
a zone along 2nd and 4th streets and Ocean Avenue and one between 5th and 7th
streets -- includes restaurants, hotels, offices and, perhaps, apartment buildings.
Under the proposed plan, assessments would be based on the property’s
size, location and type of use.
A property on the thriving Third Street Promenade would pay the most at 88¢
a square foot, properties on neighboring 2nd and 4th streets and
Ocean Avenue would pay 44¢, while those on 5th to 7th streets
would pay 22¢.
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