Property owners not unified by vote
DOWNTOWN Property owners here have approved a new assessment district that is expected to raise as much as $3.6 million annually for the next 20 years to help pay for cleaner streets and alleys, homeless outreach, a marketing campaign and ambassadors to help guide tourists and improve public safety.
The vote tally, which was released Thursday by the City Clerk’s Office, was weighed based on the amount a property owner would pay under the new assessment. Those who voted in favor represent roughly $1.6 million of the total assessment, while those opposed represent roughly $1.2 million. The remaining amount, around $770,000, was unaccounted for at press time.
The assessment, which is expected to help Downtown remain a vibrant destination, required a simple majority vote. After 10 years, property owners will have the opportunity to kill it or extend it. The assessment can be increased by as much as 5 percent each year.
The assessment will go before the City Council on July 22, at which time the council can adopt it as is or make modifications, which could include reducing the assessment, changing the activities to be funded or change the boundaries of the proposed district, according to the City Clerk’s Office.
“It was a long road [and] and we are delighted,” said Kathleen Rawson, executive director of the Bayside District Corp., which helps City Hall manage and market Downtown. Bayside was a driving force behind creating the new assessment district.
“Now we are going to be looking forward to creating a plan that would implement this in the best possible way,” Rawson said. “It is our hope that those who supported it will be as pleased as they expected, and those who didn’t will be pleasantly surprised at the outcome.”
The vote brings to an end a nearly three-year process that has exposed deep rifts between property owners on the Third Street Promenade and those in surrounding areas, as well as City Hall. The results are expected to create even more acrimony between those who voted in favor and those who voted against, with the opposition already crying foul.
“We are extremely disappointed,” said Jeff Segal of Segal Enterprises, a commercial real estate developer and manager in Downtown that will pay around $5,400 a year under the new assessment. “We think that it is very unfair to be providing corporate welfare for promenade owners to provide services for the promenade and for parking structures we do not use. This is grossly unfair, to make us foot the bill for other people.”
Approved by the City Council in April, the new assessment district revamps the Bayside board and the way it is chosen, giving property owners the power to appoint six members, the council six and the city manager one.
Under the plan, the assessment is based on the property’s size, type of use and location in an expanded district divided into three zones — one comprised of the promenade, another along Second and Fourth streets and Ocean Avenue, and a third between Fifth and Seventh streets.
A property on the promenade will pay the most at 76 cents a square foot per year, properties on neighboring Second and Fourth streets and Ocean Avenue will pay 34 cents, while those on Fifth and Seventh will pay 19 cents. Government buildings and non-profits pay considerably less, the reasoning being that they are already providing services to the community and would not benefit in the same manner as others from a marketing campaign.
Under the plan, the streets reap benefits proportional to the assessments paid by their property owners, with those on the promenade paying the most while receiving the most services.
This has angered some nonprofits, including the Santa Monica Family YMCA, which voted against the assessment, sending a strongly-worded letter to the council detailing the “negative financial impact that will result” from the proposed assessment.
Rawson said nonprofits had to be included in the process under state law.
Opponents have complained that the process was not as open as supporters would like the public to believe and feel that the assessment formula was drafted by property owners on the promenade who have the greatest to gain. Some said they were not aware of the vote and had not received their ballot because they moved to another location or were out of state.
Supporters said the process has been very inclusive and Bayside has made many efforts to reach out to as many property owners as possible, sending out mailers, e-mails and making phone calls to spread the word. Scores of public meetings were held, including a hearing before the City Council. Local media outlets have covered the issue as well.
If approved by the council, the first payments under the new assessment will start rolling in January of 2009, Rawson said. Between now and then, Bayside will work to form a new board and hire workers for the ambassador program and maintenance crews.
The old Bayside board will be disbanded. The downtown area will still be called the Bayside District, Rawson added.
“We are very excited,” Rawson said. “This is what Downtown needs.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 11, 2008. Read the original PDF.