A group of business and property owners are in the process of
trying to form a new assessment district to pay for an array of
downtown improvements in the coming years, while it would set the
stage for continued funding toward such services once the Hollister
Redevelopment Agency expires in 13 years.
A group of business and property owners are in the process of trying to form a new assessment district to pay for an array of downtown improvements in the coming years, while it would set the stage for continued funding toward such services once the Hollister Redevelopment Agency expires in 13 years.
Using one of the many ideas laid out in the Downtown Strategy Plan developed two years ago and funded by the RDA and the Hollister Downtown Association, the HDA is spearheading efforts to launch the new district – referred to as a PBID and common in other cities throughout California and the United States.
A steering committee made up of local business and property owners has been meeting for the past nine months in mapping out the requirements to get the idea to a vote. More than 50 percent of the downtown owners subject to the assessment would have to approve of it on a ballot, which might go out in mid-May, said Brenda Weatherly, the HDA’s executive director.
Under the steering committee’s plan, the PBID would contract with the HDA to handle the administrative side, for about 20 percent of the first year’s budget.
Weatherly stressed how the new district’s levy would not be a “tax” and how 99 percent of the proceeds would funnel directly back to the PBID. The remaining 1 percent, meanwhile, would be collected as a county assessment fee. The steering committee has planned at this point to have a budget of $125,000 in the first year, and the PBID’s initial run would last five years, with the possibility to extend it beyond that.
For the full story, including comments from business owners, see the Free Lance on Tuesday.
