Idea to fund maintenance, landscaping under discussion, scrutiny
By Bruce Barton and Megan Ma, Town Crier Staff Writers
 City of Los Altos employees Ed Craig and Todd Perotti trim bushes on Main Street. Local businesses are discussing possible options to improve downtown such as adopting a Business Improvement District solution that would collect fees from retailers for downtown projects. |
For years, particularly since the economy went south with the dot-com bust more than five years ago, talk about bringing more traffic - and sales - to downtown Los Altos has persisted. While downtown sales are up over the past two years, discussion on how to attract more visitors continues - centering mostly on improving landscaping and maintenance.
The problem remains, however, how to pay for such improvements.
One tool currently being discussed is the formation of a business improvement district (BID), wherein property and business owners in the district would invest in an agreed-upon list of services and pay yearly fees.
A March 23 meeting held downtown addressed the concept as a city of Los Altos consultant presented options and talked about what downtowns in other communities are doing. The Los Altos City Council allocated $5,000 for the consultant.
City Manager Phil Rose said these
latest discussions grew out of meetings among downtown property owners over
the past two to three years about downtown improvements. Some discussion had
surfaced in recent years on repaving
the parking plazas, but the project proved more than downtown investors could afford.
BID misconceptions
Rebecca Zito, the city’s economic development coordinator, started the March 23 meeting by attempting to clear up misconceptions about BIDs among the business and property owners.
“There’s been the accusation that the city is trying to force this on downtown property owners,” she said. “This is not the case. An assessment district is a collaborative process,” she noted, an action initiated by property or business owners to fund services that would be administered by the city. These services could range from capital improvement projects, such as revamping streets and sidewalks, to enhanced maintenance and landscaping.
Zito added assessment districts do not fund what she referred to as “baseline services” - services already provided by the city, such as trash pickup once a week in the parking plazas. However, Zito noted an assessment district could fund an increase in the frequency of existing services.
She offered one BID scenario, which could involve litter pickup three times a week and twice-yearly sidewalk steam cleaning: The estimated $37,000 yearly cost would have 28 percent of the property owners paying $217 annually, and another 19 percent paying $181. Others, depending of the amount of property owned, could pay anywhere from $36.29 to $2,032.
Chamber of Commerce President Julie Rose asserted that BIDs are necessary to provide extra services that the city itself cannot fund. “I think John Moss (former Los Altos councilman) said it best when he said, ‘Although we’re a very wealthy community, we’re not a wealthy city,’” Rose said. Property taxes and sales tax actually account for a limited portion of the city’s revenue, she said.
The assembled group of 11 property owners and 20 business owners, among others, heard a lengthy presentation from consultant Darlene Rios Drapkin of Richmond, an expert in BID formations. She said business improvement districts are public-private partnerships, “self-imposed and self-governed. They enhance, not replace (existing) services.” Rios Drapkin estimated that based on its size, a Los Altos BID could raise $150,000 to $400,000 annually. The downtown comprises 95 parcels.
“Once you form a BID - there is a specific budget,” Rios Drapkin said. “Normally, you pick one to three things you want to fund.”
BID examples
Zito offered other examples of what a BID for Los Altos could fund, including more lighting, installation of public restrooms or signage. The basic or “baseline” services the city already provides to the downtown include trash pickup in the parking plazas once a week, parking management, landscaping, garbage and recycling service, and maintenance of the sewer system. Zito estimated these basic downtown services cost the city $117,000 annually.
The presentation at times met with hostility. Some eagerly fired off questions about how much a BID would cost them, while others went off-topic and complained about a lack of downtown parking.
Beth Miller, owner of Marion Jackstons and secretary of the downtown merchant group the Los Altos Village Association, noted the association five years ago researched BIDs and decided not to pursue them. “We figured there were too many problems there to outweigh the benefits,” she said.
Miller added she’d like to see “more street cleaning, more flowers,” but would like to see more options offered beyond the BID. “We’d like to have a menu to choose from. Hopefully, that will be one of the things to come out of this meeting,” she said.
Rose offered a historical perspective. He said the city of Los Altos was formed with citizens wanting “very little government,” and the city has no money to go beyond baseline services.
“We’re here to help you do something positive (forming a BID) if you’re interested in it,” he said.
‘A lot of concerns’
Rose said last week the negative reaction at the March 23 meeting was “a pretty typical response other cities have experienced. A lot of people have a lot of concerns.”
He said this was the first in what he sees as a series of informational meetings. Although only seven of the 30-40 people assembled March 23 raised hands in support of pursuing a BID, “We’re not discouraged by one meeting,” Rose said.
Zito said the city would evaluate feedback from the meeting and consider the next steps. There is no specific timeline for moving BID discussions forward. Options before the city may include another survey of property and business owners.
“We have a lot of people in town who have expressed concern about the maintenance levels of downtown,” Rose said. “What we hear over and over is that this needs to be done, they need to address this issue.”
Los Altos Mayor Ron Packard, among the downtown’s largest property owners, said the major property owners downtown favor serious consideration of a BID. “Landscaping and maintenance are the biggest concerns,” he said. “We need to focus on specific items we should be doing. … I’m in favor of trying to do something to improve the downtown. There are some property owners who only want to maximize their income and minimize their expenses. But most of them are not that way.”
Challenge ahead
A large challenge looms before the city and BID supporters in generating involvement, agreement and commitment. Despite officials’ assertions to the contrary, some business and property owners think the city has available funds but won’t commit to more spending for downtown improvements. Some think improvements are simply not needed.
Longtime downtown property owner Mel Kahn said he’s a supporter “of some effort to maintain downtown, make it cleaner.” But of BIDs, “I’m not sure it’s the right mechanism yet. There are still more questions to be answered. For instance, what is the burden for each property. Nobody has told us what that is yet.”
Business owners are worried about that burden being passed on to them in higher rents. But Rose countered that market forces would keep those rents reasonable, as owners would want to avoid losing tenants.
Rose thinks a BID for downtown Los Altos would likely be centered on increased maintenance and landscaping. Considering both Main and State streets have gone through major repaving projects in the last 12 years, Rose sees a move toward a capital improvement-oriented BID highly unlikely.
But even a far less costly BID for maintenance currently has plenty of doubters.
“I think the city’s going to have to do it (pay for increased maintenance),” said downtown commercial broker Ron Labetich. “It takes an unbelievable effort - I wouldn’t bet on it (happening). There are a lot of things you can do to dress up the town (without a BID.”
“The biggest hesitation (is), Should downtown businesses that already extend themselves to the community bear the burden, when it’s the community that benefits?” said Los Altos Village Association past president Harry Price, a downtown attorney. “The real question is whether this should be a community-based initiative.”
Longtime property owner Bart Nelson acknowledged that a BID is only one option being discussed. “The (Village Association) is interested in increasing commercial potential,” he said. “There are many avenues for that and this is one of them. Property owners and (the association) are still talking about it.”
