URBAN THERAPIST ON THE CASE
DOWNTOWN With the goal of preserving downtown’s status as a premier West Coast destination, residents and merchants have tentatively moved closer to creating a new management structure for the area that will likely include a new assessment or property tax to pay for more bathrooms, better parking and cleaner streets.
Stakeholders are still undecided as to how much money would be required and who should control the purse strings, but there does seem to be the consensus that more money is needed to remain competitive with other retail and entertainment centers in the region such as The Grove, Century City and a rejuvenated downtown Los Angeles.
The process has been deliberate, with much of the debate focused on how the money would be managed. Property owners and businesses seem leery of City Hall controlling funds generated from their operations, while residents and elected officials are concerned about handing over too much power to private interests to manage what is a heavily utilized public space, referred to often as Santa Monica’s “living room.”
“I’m pleased with where we are now, considering it was very polarizing in the beginning,” said Brad Segal of the Denver-based consultant Progressive Urban Management Associates (PUMA), hired in August 2006 by City Hall and the Bayside District Corp. to draft a business plan for the downtown district. “Out of all of the cities I have worked with this is one of the top five most complicated projects.”
After tackling a serious “trust issue,” Segal, who considers himself something of an urban therapist, said stakeholders have “found a lot of common ground.”
Under Segal’s latest proposal, City Hall and a new, Bayside-like board comprised of residents, elected officials, merchants and property owners, would enter into a contract with City Hall to keep a better eye on what services are being provided and where there are gaps that could be filled by contracting with private companies.
The board would also receive more money directly from assessments collected instead of having it first go through City Hall, which currently keeps around $200,000 of the $825,000 collected from the Bayside assessment district.
Segal said downtown needs anywhere from $2.75 million to $3.25 million invested annually to address outstanding issues identified by stakeholders.
To do so, property owners on the Third Street Promenade may have to pay around 40 cents per square foot, with those on streets with less economic activity paying less.
Property owners have asked Segal to return in the coming months with a more detailed breakdown of the assessment methodology.
Segal said he is looking for the Bayside board to bring the plan before the City Council by spring for an endorsement, and then circulate a petition in the fall, at which time a majority of the businesses within the new assessment district would have to approve it before money could be collected.
Bayside could go before the council as early as March 27, Segal said.
“The good news is there is a lot of consensus on what people want downtown to be,” Segal said. “They want it to be a clean, safe destination that is parkable, walkable...
“This is the community’s living room and they don’t want to lose that great attachment Santa Monicans have for their downtown.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 29, 2007. Read the original PDF.