Quelle: Main Street Group, Urban Revitalization Consulting, Long Beach

Quelle: Main Street Group, Urban Revitalization Consulting, Long Beach

Case Study: City of Long Beach

Long Beach

Scope of Work—The Downtown Long Beach Associates (DLBA) retained Main Street Group to establish a PBID. This work included redefining the downtown vision, establishing funding sources, developing an implementation plan, and creating a management structure that would ensure fulfillment of the vision.

Challenges—In order to successfully implement a BID, the DLBA had to overcome four formidable challenges:

• lack of a well developed property owner database
• limited staff resources
• lack of knowledge regarding the City's level of participation
• integration of the new property based BID with an existing business/tenant based BID

Solutions—Main Street Group was able to successfully resolve these challenges with the following strategies:

• By working with the County, and facilitating onsite field–work in the District, Main Street Group was able to create a workable database.
• Main Street Group worked with the City and the Redevelopment Agency, ultimately gaining their support of the BID and their agreement to pay 25% of the district's assessments.
• Main Street Group effectively leveraged and augmented the DLBA's resources. The two worked as an organized team to facilitate focus groups, build consensus for the Management District Plan, and produce campaign–marketing materials.
• Working with the DLBA, Main Street Group restructured the existing all business–owner Board of Directors into a new smaller board representing both business and property owners. The new board is composed of 5 property owners, 4 business owners, 2 city representatives, and 2 ex-officio members.

The Result—With assistance from the Main Street Group, the Downtown Long Beach Associates successfully established a nearly $1,000,000, 65 block, five–year district.

Programs and Budget—The business improvement district will provide new improvements and activities, including maintenance, security, image and communications, and special programs above and beyond those currently provided by the City. Following is a summary of the DLBA Management District Plan.

Size and Location

Approximately 72 blocks, within an area bounded roughly by Seaside Way on the south, Alamitos Ave. on the east, the Long Beach Freeway on the west and Broadway, 6th St., 8th St. and 4th St. on the north.

Improvements, Activities, Services

Security Programs—a Downtown Patrol to deal with crime prevention and inappropriate conduct in the district, 16 hours a day, seven days a week. (33% of the total district budget)

Maintenance Programs—to increase effectiveness of graffiti removal, sidewalk sweeping and pressure washing, alley cleaning and trash removal. (34 % of the total district budget)

Image and Communication Programs—to create a positive image for the district based upon the positive changes that are taking place. Programs designed to attract new investors and customers to the district. (9% of the total district budget)

Special Project Programs—to focus on specific issues important to the district such as: special events, uniform signage, and streetscape improvements. (11% of the total district budget)

Administration

In order to manage the day–to–day activities of the PBID, a professional administrative staff and office is necessary to insure the delivery of quality services. The budget for administration including labor, office rent, insurance, utilities, supplies, etc., is $90,600 or 9.8% of the budget. This budget assumes that the current administrative staff of the Downtown Long Beach Associates is combined with new PBID staff. The DLBA would be contributing $169,200 to the administrative budget, bringing the total to $259,800.

Method of Financing

A levy of assessments upon real property that benefits from the improvements and activities.

Budget

Total district budget for the 1999 year of operation is approximately $919,001.

Cost

Annual assessments are based upon an allocation of program costs by benefit zone and a calculation of assessable footage. Two property assessment variables, street front footage and lot square footage are used in the calculation. First year assessments will not exceed:

Zone 1 / Zone 2 / Zone 3 & 4 / Zone 5
Street Front Footage / $ 0 / $9.79 / $7.18 / $3.30
Lot Square Footage / .03 / .04 / .05 / .03

Cap

Assessments will be subject to changes in the Los Angeles Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all urban consumers, annual increases not to exceed 5% per year.

District Formation

District formation requires submission of petitions from property owners representing more than 50 % of total assessments and the return of mail ballots evidencing a majority in favor of the assessment.

Duration

The district will have a five–year life beginning January 1, 1999. After four years, the petition process must be repeated for the district to continue.

Governance

Management District budgets and policies will be recommended to the City Council by a board composed of property and business owners located within the District. A private nonprofit management organization, governed by the downtown property owners, will implement improvements and activities plan.

Consultant Team

Main Street Group—Steve Gibson
Downtown Resources—John Lambeth
Downtown Designs—Kathilynn Carpenter
Progressive Urban Management—Brad Segal