A group of Village property owners aiming to form a Business Improvement District (BID) in Pacific Palisades reviewed the language of its district management plan on May 10.
A BID is a City-supported financing organization made up of property owners and is established within contiguous boundaries. BIDs raise funds through fees assessed to property owners and invest them back into the boundaries of the business communities they serve through services such as marketing campaigns, pressure washing of sidewalks, additional trash collection and other improvements.
The Palisades district plan includes the BID’s method of financing, benefit zones, cost, duration and system of governance. According to this plan, three variables will be used when assessing property owners within the district boundaries: “parcel square footage, building square footage and linear front footage.”
Steve Gibson of Urban Place Consulting, who has been hired by the group to facilitate the process, said that even if everything is approved along the way, the BID committee will likely not become official until January 2015.
Because a BID is a tax district, its establishment requires significant coordination with the City Clerk’s office, a public hearing process and approval by the City Council. The group is currently in the fifth stage of a roughly 15-stage process to form this BID.
“We are actually halfway through step five,” said Gibson, who hopes to have the engineer’s report and management plan submitted to the City Clerk’s office by July. This office must review the BID’s management plan before a petition drive can begin. Property owners representing more than 50 percent of the proposed assessment “to be paid” would have to sign the petition for the BID proposal to move to the City Council.
From there, the process will take another one to five months, Gibson said. According to the timeline provided at the meeting, the district management plan and petitions will be mailed out to property owners sometime in October early November. The follow up campaign to secure signed petitions and to deliver them to the City Clerk’s office is expected to be complete by next March.
Once the City Council reviews and approves a petition of sufficiency finding, adoption of ordinance on intention of establishing a BID and authorizes a public hearing, the City would then send ballots to all property owners asking them whether they want to establish a district with a yes or no vote, which would then again be weighted by the amount of assessment paid by each property owner.
City Councilman Bill Rosendahl wrote that he is “excited to learn of the tremendous progress the Palisades community has made toward creating a BID.”
“I believe this could be an invaluable tool for the property owners and merchants of the Palisades in improving the Village,” Rosendahl said. “The success of BIDs throughout our City in building community and enhancing value is well recognized and much appreciated.”
Laurie Sale, who has been facilitating the group’s work from the beginning, said the committee has about $2,700 left in its operating budget, which will cover the cost of the engineer’s report. During the May 10 meeting, Gibson said the group needs at least $5,000 to $10,000 to continue the process.
Elliot Zorensky, one of the commercial property owners involved with the BID process, encouraged other property owners to contribute. He said that the contribution would be deducted from the property owner’s assessment fees if the BID is approved and if not, the contribution is tax deductible.
“I’m positive this BID will be approved,” Zorensky told the Palisadian-Post. “The Palisades is a very special place and deserves special handling.”
Property owners, tenants and community members interested in supporting the BID process can contact Laurie Sale at rehabitat@verizon.net.
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