Council
Gives Assessment District Thumbs Up |
By Jorge Casuso
March 27 -- A proposed Downtown assessment district took
a major step forward Tuesday, when the City Council not only blessed
a petition drive calling for elections, it directed the City Manager
to sign on for the City, one of the key property owners.
The move comes nearly two years after Bayside District and City officials took
steps to change the way the Downtown has been run since the thriving Third Street
Promenade was launched two decades ago.
If 30 percent of the property owners sign on, an election would be held to
determine whether they are willing to be assessed an additional $3.6 million
a year to bankroll more maintenance, an ambassador program and additional marketing.
Council members praised the process, saying it had brought closer together
key stakeholders – landlords, merchants and residents – who have
not always seen eye-to-eye.
“I think this is really good,” said Council member Ken Genser.
“There was so much distrust among different groups. There’s general
consensus now. We’re clearly moving forward on this.”
“I’m impressed about how the Downtown community has come together,”
said Council member Kevin McKeown.
As part of its action, the council reviewed and accepted the recommendations
hammered out by a special task force. They include replacing the existing 11-member
Bayside Board currently appointed by the council with a 13-member board, six
of whose members would be appointed by the council, six by the property owners
and one by the City Manager.
Although the board’s makeup would not be prescribed, the members would
come from the three proposed zones in the 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 to the 10 Freeway.
The proposed assessment district would have a 20-year limit, with property
owners voting after ten years to determine if it should continue.
The task force also recommended that the City Bus Yards be exempt and that
the rate charged to the 20 Downtown non-profits – which include churches,
the Salvation Army, Step Up on Second and the YMCA – be reduced.
The plan has garnered a “pretty impressive” list of supporters,
said Brad Segal, the consultant who helped Bayside officials put together the
new plan.
The plan also seems to have overwhelming public support, with 90 percent of
those who responded to an on-line survey saying the proposed services “would
improve Downtown” and 80 percent of the Downtown landlords, business owners
and residents polled saying the plan “would directly benefit them,”
Segal said.
Bankrolled by the new assessments, the plan would boost maintenance by $1.3
million, create a $1.23 million “ambassador program” to inform visitors
and help keep the streets safe and $500,000 in additional marketing.
While the council enthusiastically embraced the plan, several council members
aired concerns about how the maintenance and ambassador programs would be run.
Genser said the services agreement between the Bayside and the City would need
to specify that the maintenance “needs to be done subject to the regulations
of the City.”
Council member Kevin McKeown, who has expressed concerns that the ambassadors
would be given too much of a policing function, worried about how homeless issues
would be addressed under the program.
Former mayor Judy Abdo expressed similar concerns.
“You need to follow this very, very closely to make sure the homeless
are not swept from Downtown,” she told the council, adding that the plan
“is not perfect, but it’s a pretty good plan.”
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 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¢.
Under the assessment plan, the City would be assessed approximately $362,797
a year, or about 10 percent of the total assessments.
To pave the way for the assessment district, the council also approved an ordinance
adopting local modifications to the method of levying assessments under a 1994
local law.
Before the plan can move forward, it needs the approval of the property owners,
who will have a proportional vote based on the assessed value of
their properties and the City Council, which controls the public
streets.
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