Petition drive to begin soon
CITY HALL A bid to create a new assessment district in Downtown Santa Monica received a major endorsement by the City Council on Tuesday which decided to affix City Hall’s name onto a petition that will launch a ballot measure required to form the district.
Besides blessing the proposed Downtown Management Plan, the council authorized City Manager Lamont Ewell to sign City Hall, which represents 10 percent of the $3.6 million in assessments to be collected if the district is approved, onto a petition that would call an election of property owners who would decide whether a new district should be formed. The council also decided to change the threshold for assessment districts from 50 percent of property owners representing the assessment to 40 percent.
There are a total of 340 properties in the proposed assessment district, which would be roughly bounded by Seventh Street,Ocean Avenue,Wilshire Boulevard and the I-10 Freeway.
The petition drive is expected to start next week. The proposed plan has changed a bit since it was presented before the council in January, including omitting the Big Blue Bus yard from the district, reducing the marketing budget and adjusting the rate that non-profit organizations would have to contribute to the assessment, acknowledging their service to the community, according to Brad Segal, the consultant for the project.
The Bayside District formed 20 years ago and the downtown area has changed dramatically during that time, Segal said,creating the new for reorganization and more assessments to fund additional maintenance and marketing programs.
The working group that formulated the proposed plan has also suggested reducing the governance body from 15 to 13 members, comprised of six council-appointed members, six appointed by property owners and on by the city manager.
The funds raised under the new Property Based Assessment District (PBAD) would be used toward enhancing current maintenance services levels and marketing campaigns, including several new initiatives, such as an ambassador program for the Third Street Promenade.
The ambassadors would serve a hospitality role, being the eyes and ears and attending to patrons for concierge-like services. The program would run seven days a week, 15 hours a day, at a cost of approximately $1.2 million annually, all of which would be paid exclusively through the PBAD.
Several councilmembers and members of the public commented on how the working group has come together to embrace the project, after starting years ago at odds with one another.
“I really feel good we’ve gotten to this point where there is general consensus and people are trusting each other,” Councilmember Ken Genser said at the meeting.
But Judy Abdo, the former mayor and current member of the working group, advised the council pay close attention to make sure the homeless are not swept off the promenade or out of the downtown area.
“It’s not a perfect plan,but it’s a pretty good plan,”Abdo said. It was a sentiment echoed by Todd Flora, a member of the Bayside District Corporation, who said he came into the process as a skeptic.
“I hope those ambassadors will be true ambassadors to visitors to the city as well as (provide) real assistance to those who need our help in a very human way,” he said.
If the petition garners enough signatures, a ballot measure will be mailed to the property owners. If the district is formed, a service agreement will be drawn between City Hall and the Bayside District, a document that would outline how certain services will be delivered, Segal said.
Under the proposed plan, home and condo owners would also be assessed, a departure from the current Central Business District. The formula by which the assessments are determined would be weighted different depending on the location of the property, with properties on the promenade paying the most per square footage, followed by parcels between Fourth Street and Ocean Avenue and then properties between Fifth and Seventh streets.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 28, 2008. Read the original PDF.