City Council discussion of a property-based business improvement
district (PBID) for downtown has been postponed until later this
month.
City Council discussion of a property-based business improvement district (PBID) for downtown has been postponed until later this month.
The delay was requested by Dan Craig, director of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association, the group behind the PBID. Craig said he wants more time to collect signatures on a petition signifying interest before asking council, as downtown property owners, to sign.
The PBID would require property owners to pay, for five years, an assessment based on land size, with the money used to enhance Monterey Road and continue the Downtown Association that markets the area and lobbies the city on downtown interests.
The assessment district would collect a maximum of $200,445 in the first year of which $50,000 would be used for marketing, $5,000 for Monterey Road maintenance, $135,900 for PBID management and advocacy and $9,545 for a reserve fund.
Bob Hammond, who owns four properties and has lived in Morgan Hill since 1959, is not in favor of the parcel tax.
“The proposed budget over the next five years is more than $1 million, of which there is nothing for any downtown improvement,” Hammond wrote in an e-mail.
Hammond said he would not vote, considering that a “no.”
Craig agreed that the initial focus would be on the marketing and lobbying side.
“The (mostly volunteer) DTA management group will represent downtown business interests with the city,” Craig said. “Business owners don’t have the time to track what the city is doing; they need somebody on watch. You have to fight, scratch and claw to get things to happen in most cities.”
Part of the budget would sustain the DTA and Craig’s job. The council has backed downtown improvement as a boon to residents but asked that the DTA find a way to pay for itself; a PBID would do this, Craig said.
City staff had recommended against signing until more than 50 percent of private owners do. The city and Redevelopment Agency own 13 properties in the district, including the community center property and would owe about $38,570 annually.
Craig said that, as of Thursday, 45 percent have signed.
