Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Economic Development topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Santa Barbara council disestablishes downtown and Old Town business improvement districts, cites new CBID
Summary
The City Council voted Feb. 11 to disestablish the downtown and Old Town business improvement districts and repeal municipal code sections 4.39 and 4.43, citing the creation of a larger downtown community benefit improvement district that will take over services.
Brandon Bodette, acting library director speaking for the city administrator's office, told the council on Feb. 11 that staff recommended repealing Santa Barbara Municipal Code chapters 4.39 and 4.43 and disestablishing the downtown and Old Town Business Improvement Districts (BIDs).
"The item before you is the disestablishment of the Downtown And Old Town Business Improvement District," Bodette said, explaining that services traditionally funded by the two older BIDs — marketing and promotional activities such as First Thursday’s Art Walk and holiday decor — would be provided instead by a new, larger downtown community BID formed in June 2024. Bodette said the existing districts overlap geographically with the new district and that businesses were notified and a resolution of intent had been adopted at the prior meeting.
Robin Elander, director of the downtown organization, praised the transition and said the new Community Benefit Improvement District (CBID) will provide "new and improved services," including maintenance, security and branding, and will transfer assets from the older organization. She said more than 90 business members met the same morning to vote to dissolve the existing downtown organization and transition assets into the new organization.
Councilmember Jordan moved the staff recommendation; Councilmember Friedman seconded. The motion to approve staff recommendations carried unanimously with Councilmember Megan Harmon absent.
Bodette described the downtown BID geography as running roughly from Mitchell Turner to Ortega, with the smaller Old Town district running from Old Town to Gutierrez. He said the districts have operated under the Parking Business Improvement Law of 1989 and that the code repeal would remove the older BID language while the parking improvement district provisions remain where applicable.
Council members and downtown stakeholders offered public gratitude to Robin Elander for her service; no substantive amendments were offered to the staff recommendation during the meeting.
