The Hollister Downtown Association’s effort to revitalize
downtown through a property-based improvement district will be
postponed for at least another year after it did not meet a June 5
deadline to gather support of 50 percent of the property owners
based on the amount of dollars they generate.
The Hollister Downtown Association’s effort to revitalize downtown through a property-based improvement district will be postponed for at least another year after it did not meet a June 5 deadline to gather support of 50 percent of the property owners based on the amount of dollars they generate.
The PBID, an assessment district that is common throughout California, would add a county assessment fee to all the properties within a 20-block district in downtown. The fee then would be funneled back through the PBID to help fund projects downtown. The PBID’s budget was planned to be $125,000 in its first year of an initial five-year run. It was spurred by an idea in the Downtown Strategy Plan put together two years ago.
Currently, in the first step of a three-step process, the HDA initially had planned to implement the property assessment in 2011. But with the support of only 39 percent of the property owners, the HDA will continue to inform the downtown owners of its plans, said Brenda Weatherly, the HDA’s executive director.
The June 5 deadline was set in order for the HDA to hold an election – just for the property and business owners – and from there the HDA would send it to the county assessors office to be collected in 2011.
Without enough signatures, the HDA hopes to implement the PBID by 2012, Weatherly said.
“We did not make our deadline but we are not giving up,” Weatherly said.
The PBID steering committee will focus on informing those who didn’t sign the petition, reiterating that it’s only a petition and not a ballot.
“There is a huge education process for this county – a lot of people weren’t aware of this process,” Weatherly said. “It’s been a bigger educational process than we expected.”
Committee member Steve Rosati, owner of Pennywise Drug, said he realizes the committee needs to re-explain its purposes.
“It’s just a matter of sitting people down and talking to them,” he said.
PBID committee members in recent months presented the idea to both the City of Hollister and San Benito County – because they own properties within the district. Both governments agreed to sign the petitions, but only after the 50-percent mark had been met so they would not be the deciding factors.
The government agencies make up nearly 11 percent of the dollars generated downtown.
“I know that brings us pretty close to our goal, but that’s just the way it rolls,” Weatherly said.
And so far, sitting down with property owners one at a time has worked, she said.
“We get a good response,” Weatherly said. “They can ask us questions, and we can tell them what the answer is.”
And waiting another year to start the assessment may not be a bad thing, Rosati said.
“It’s part of a long, drawn-out process and there are both good and bad things,” he said. “Waiting another year might be more beneficial.”
She went on: “We are moving along fine and now not having that deadline looming over us – 2012, so what – that’s okay,” she said.
