Downtown Santa Rosa district to be put to vote

The Santa Rosa City Council Tuesday ordered an election to decide whether to form a special taxing district to raise more than $500,000 per year to clean up and promote the downtown.

After a number of downtown Santa Rosa property owners signed a petition expressing support for the idea, the City Council ordered a full election to be held on July 17.

If approved by owners representing 50 percent of the assessed value of downtown properties, a Community Benefits District would be formed to fund improvements downtown, ranging from planting flowers to addressing homeless issues.

The money would flow to the Downtown Action Organization, a nonprofit formed by downtown business interests last year. The organization’s budget in the first year is expected to be $533,645.

Of that, 66 percent, or $350,000, would go toward to “sidewalk operations,” defined as beautification efforts, such as sidewalk and gutter sweeping, steam cleaning, emptying of trash and graffiti removal.

In addition, it would involve enforcing “civil sidewalks,” including hiring private security guards or caseworkers to deal with the homeless, aggressive panhandling and mentally ill people.

Exactly how that would be done remains unclear, but options discussed including hiring more police officers, working with outreach workers and installing camera systems.

Other pieces of the budget include administration (14 percent), branding and promotions (9 percent), new parking arrangements and mobility measures (7.5 percent), and contingency (3.5 percent).

Previous downtown funding districts have devolved after disagreements over funding and benefits. The latest effort, which coincided with and was backed by some of the same people who pushed for the reunification of Old Courthouse Square, is meant to bring a service level above and beyond what the city currently offers.

The district comprises 25 blocks with 159 parcels owned by 118 separate owners.

The district would have four zones with property owners in each paying different rates. Those closest to the downtown core around Old Courthouse Square would pay the highest rate, based on a formula that combines the square footage of the building, lot and street frontage.

Parcels farther away would pay less. The Santa Rosa Plaza would pay a third, even lower rate. And city garages would pay a per space rate of $36 per space.

That means the city’s downtown parking district, which is funded through parking rates, will be paying about $115,000 annually toward the nonprofit’s beautification work.

The second largest property owner in the district after the city, the Santa Rosa Plaza mall, did not sign the petition, but representatives have expressed support, said Raissa de la Rosa, the city’s economic development manager.

“Whether they end up signing their ballot, I cannot say, but they did indicate in an email that they are not opposed to this,” she told the council.

While it is paying the lowest rate - 14 cents per square foot - the large size of the mall including anchor tenants is 694,000 square feet, and would require it to shoulder nearly one-fifth of the burden, or $94,000 per year.

The initial survey conducted by the city’s consultant indicated it had received support from nearly 50 percent of downtown property owners by assessed value, but only 23.9 percent of that was from private property owners.

De la Rosa attributed that relatively low level of support to “unusually abbreviated petition period” of about four weeks due to the October fires.

Since support was below the 30 percent threshold required to trigger a full election, the City Council effectively signed the petition as a downtown property owner to secure the needed support.

The final voting by property owners will be conducted by mail and counted at a public meeting. The city’s consultant, New City America Inc., framed the district as a important tool to fund improvements of downtown areas since the demise of redevelopment.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 707-521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.