The Goleta City Council took no action Tuesday on a proposal to fund a Property Business Improvement District study.
Councilman Roger Aceves made a motion that passed unanimously to have the city’s economic development committee evaluate and consider the idea, and work with community members and stakeholders to explore future options.
“My motion is all-inclusive,” Aceves said. “It doesn’t mean that at the end of the day it’s going to be a PBID, BID (Business Improvement District) or other BIDs out there — it’s going to come out whatever the community comes out with.”
The City Council hopes to determine if a PBID floats to the top of their priorities.
Councilman Kyle Richards said he could support the motion if the City Council can “have an opportunity to figure out where we put it on our list of priorities at a later date.”
Council members were not asked to approve the formation of the PBID at the meeting, according to city staff.
A PBID is designed to provide stable funding for organizations of property or business owners working to improve their business district, said Nichole Farley, account and project manager at Civitas.
Owners within a district work together to make significant improvements, attract consumers and new businesses, and develop the area, she said
Goleta Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Kristen Miller said the organization’s board of directors took the initiative to start looking at ways to enhance Old Town about four years ago.
Members of this organization, which represents some 450 business leaders and more than 50 business members in Old Town, told city staff that the goal was to come up with a “big picture plan,” Miller said.
“There was growing pressure from our members and from the community to make visible and positive improvements to the one neighborhood in our city that seemed left behind,” Miller said. “We worked with the city of Goleta on a program of research, relationships and recommendations.”
The long-debated topic of whether to pursue a PBID in Old Town also was discussed at the city’s Economic Development Subcommittee and at meetings with City Manager Michelle Green.
Exploring the idea of a business improvement district was noted in the city’s strategic plan, Miller said, and the chamber’s Old Town Business Committee budgeted an initial study to analyze some data.
The Goleta chamber hired a contractor, Civitas, to complete a feasibility study intended to examine ways to improve the Old Town area. The chamber secured $31,000 to pay the consultant to assist with the PBID formation effort.
The Old Town Business Committee — a group composed of businesses, property owners, residents and community members discussing issues in Old Town related to businesses and improving the area — commissioned a retail study and hired a nationally recognized urban planner.
It also held two Old Town Business Summit events, which were each attended by more than 100 Old Town stakeholders, and began a series of outreach programs, according to Miller.
An additional survey collected more data from Old Town businesses.
Those surveyed asked the chamber to “please, do something to help us look as good as we are,” Miller said, adding that about 80 percent of Goleta residents want to see a focus of improvements in Old Town — a number from the city’s community outreach survey.
Parking and beautification were the top priorities for business leaders that the chamber surveyed or talked with, Miller said.
“Nowhere in this process has there ever been any discussion or desire to change the nature of the successful, long-standing businesses in the Old Town district,” she said. “Or to effect any or change the diversity, authenticity, culture or the mix of mom-and-pop shops that currently thrive in Old Town.”
Creating a PBID will not solve all problems, Miller said, but it will add some local investment and control, as well as some “much-needed tender loving care” to Old Town.
Miller said people have expressed some concern about the possibility that rents could rise, adding that, “we hope rents don’t go up because of this — the idea is the improvements to the corridor increase business enough to recoup the costs.”
She acknowledged that people also raised concern about the PBID potentially encouraging big chain stores instead of mom-and-pop shops.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Miller said.
More than 10 attendees at the meeting spoke in favor and in opposition of a PBID.
“In this room, there is obviously a lot of disagreement right now,” Councilman James Kyriaco said. “It’s obvious that there’s a lot of concern about what is proposed here.”
Bob Wignot, a 40-year resident of Goleta, urged the City Council to vote against the recommendation in the staff report to authorize a consultant to study a PBID.
“We find that Old Town is thriving,” Wignot said. “I find it troubling that staff wants you (City Council) to fund this consultant in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce, which has many big business members, to look at an area that’s composed primarily of small businesses and has many residents of modest means.”
He suggests considering a Business-based Business Improvement District, and proposed it could be something the Goleta Old Town Community Association could consider organizing to help fund improvements in Old Town.
The Goodland Coalition disapproves of the professional services agreement with Civitas for legal and consulting services for the Old Town Goleta PBID project, said Kitty Bednar, who has been living in Old Town for 30 years.
“Approximately 75 percent of Old Town business owners are excluded from the PBID formation process, yet, they will most likely eventually bare the cost of a PBID by way of rent increases,” Bednar said. “The PBID formation process is weighted in favor of the owners with large parcels, and there’s no place for residents in the process.”
Resident Richard Foster said during his public comments that, “a tax by any other name is still a tax.”
Activist Jacqueline Inda told the City Council that “in the crowd that I see, it’s not representative of a lot of the business owners in Old Town. It’s not representative of the residents in Old Town.”
Mayor Paula Perotte said that she doesn’t want to change the “character” of Old Town Goleta.
“It has a certain flavor that I enjoy shopping, doing business in Old Town and going to,” she said, adding that city employees have a large amount of important work, and “putting more on them at this time is not the right time.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
