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Isla Vista district adopts block-based plan to distribute food co‑op memberships
Summary
Board adopted a plan to distribute memberships for the Isla Vista Food Cooperative by prioritizing five high-congestion blocks and using door-to-door notification and two three-week claim cycles; the board found the distribution is not a gift of public funds and approved the implementing resolution.
The Isla Vista Community Services District board approved a membership distribution plan for the Isla Vista Food Cooperative, choosing a block-based, first-come-first-served approach focused on the five blocks with the highest parking congestion.
Staff explained county reviewers had delayed the plan for a month while confirming the district had legal authority to run the pilot; staff said county reviewers ultimately agreed as a courtesy though they had no formal review authority. The staff recommendation — option 2 in the staff report — selects five blocks that have over 85% parking congestion, canvasses each address in those blocks, and allows residents a three-week window to claim a membership. Unclaimed memberships will cycle into a second three-week round, and after that any remaining memberships will be distributed to the next set of prioritized blocks.
“Once they get signed up, we’ll be able to do minor tracking,” a staff member said, noting that household memberships are tied to a physical address and the district plans to ask residents to re‑certify if they leave for the summer. The resolution accompanying the plan makes a formal finding that the membership distribution is not a gift of public funds because it serves a public purpose (parking management and congestion reduction), staff said.
Board members asked about staffing and logistics; staff said the program will be a joint effort across community engagement and public works, and that volunteers and an intern allocation will handle most door‑to‑door work this spring. The staff estimate for canvassing is roughly one hour per block set, and the initial pilot limits distribution to five blocks at a time to keep the workload manageable.
The board voted to adopt option 2 and to adopt the attached resolution authorizing the distribution plan. Staff said the pilot will be evaluated on short-term indicators (co-op use by distributed households, self-reported changes in car habits) and longer-term measures (parking congestion in distributed blocks and co-op patronage by local residents).
