July 2022
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President
Rena Masten Leddy
Urban Place Consulting Group

Immediate Past President
Steve Snider
Downtown Oakland Association
 
Vice President
Austin Metoyer
Downtown Long Beach Alliance

2nd Vice President
Suzanne Holley
Downtown Center Business Improvement District (LA)

Secretary
Chloe Shipp
San Jose Downtown Association
 
Treasurer
John Caner
Downtown Berkeley Association
 
At-Large Directors
Shifra de Benedictis-Kessner
Oakland Chamber of Commerce

Kevin Clerici
Downtown Ventura Partners

Josh Coyne
Downtown San Diego Partnership

Kathy Hemmenway
Walnut Creek Downtown
Business Association

Christian Martin
SOMA West CBD

Steve Mulheim
Old Pasadena Management District

Andrew Robinson
The East Cut

Marisa Rodriguez
Union Square Alliance

Bettina Swagger
Downtown San Luis Obispo

Andrew Thomas
Westwood Village Improvement Association

Liz Lorand Williams
Downtown Sacramento Partnership
IN THE NEWS

Sacramento County Approves Second “Safe Stay” Site
SA County News
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors approved yesterday Sacramento County’s second proposed “Safe Stay Community” for persons experiencing homelessness.

California Officials Revisit Airbnb Rules Amid Pandemic Tourism Boom
The New York Times
San Diego, Marin County, San Bernardino County and more have approved rules this year to restrict short-term rentals.

San Francisco businesses struggle to hang on as tech workers stay home
CNBC
The office vacancy rate in San Francisco rose to 24.2% in the second quarter from 23.8% in the prior period, according to CBRE research.

The '15-Minute City': A Strategy To Reduce The Traffic, Pollution And High Housing Costs In LA
LAist.com
These are two things we can probably all agree on: L.A. is increasingly unaffordable, and it has too much traffic.
Do you have your ear to the ground when it comes to the latest downtown news in your region? To submit news to be considered for inclusion in the newsletter, please contact us.
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Government Affairs Report by Jason Bryant

Governor Newsom Signs CDA-sponsored Bill to Strengthen PBID Formation and Renewal Process

Last week, the California Downtown Association (CDA) received word that the Governor had signed CDA’s sponsored legislation that would significantly improve the process for the formation and renewal of PBIDs. Thanks to Assemblymember Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica), who introduced AB 2890, PBIDs will now benefit from new statutory language that gives parties greater certainty to comply with the benefit separation requirement.
Background
In 1996 voters passed Proposition 218, which implemented new requirements on PBIDs, and other assessment districts including a condition to specify "special" vs. "general" benefits realized from the assessment. However, the initiative included only a brief definition of the benefits and had no implementation guidance for how engineers are to identify the benefits. This ambiguity has made it difficult for PBIDs to determine what assessments can be charged and has increased the number of lawsuits against the districts.

Ambiguity in published court cases relative to how an engineer should quantify benefits in PBIDs has inspired plaintiffs to challenge districts. While not successful so far, these suits have delayed the implementation of programs and have forced cities, counties, and PBIDs to spend precious resources defending the claims. BIDs who have been sued on the methodology used to calculate special vs. general benefit have experienced success in the courts using the precedence of the Dahms case (Dahms vs. Downtown Pomona PBID (2009). This case provides an inclusive and straightforward definition of special benefits. This bill would essentially codify Dahms and amend the current BID law to include this definition.

Benefits of AB 2890

  • AB 2890 clarifies the special benefit of the programs, which will help PBID assessments avoid unnecessary and costly legal challenges.  

  • AB 2890 proposes a narrow addition to Streets and Highways Code § 36600 et seq. that is needed to give direction to engineers on how to accurately calculate the benefits in accordance with the law. 

  • Without the clarifications in AB 2890, PBIDs will remain subject to litigation challenges that severely impede – or even eliminate – PBIDs and the benefits they provide.

Jason Bryant 
Bryant Government Affairs
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