Ventura Supports New Fee

The Ventura City Council has voted to support an assessment district downtown if at least half of the other property owners within the area agree to help pay for cleaner sidewalks, a marketing campaign and other services designed to strengthen the economic revival of Main Street.

The proposal has sparked a brouhaha among downtown merchants and property owners. Some support creation of the proposed business improvement district, in which the city owns 13% of the property. Others say they already pay their fair share and that a new tax could undermine merchants struggling to stay afloat.

Following a staff recommendation, the City Council voted 4 to 2 on Monday to sign a petition supporting the assessment, if the equivalent of 90 or more remaining property owners sign it. City Councilmen Neil Andrews and James Monahan voted against the recommendation.

Signatures will be weighted according to the amount of benefits each parcel is scheduled to receive. There will be three benefit areas, or zones, within the district, said Sid White, city economic development and revitalization manager.

The Downtown Ventura Community Council mailed petitions last week to the affected property owners. Petitions must be turned in by April 30.

“Because the city owns some of the properties in the downtown area and would be a party to the assessment, [City Council members] wanted to wait and have property owners, other than the city, weigh in,” White said.

The petition is the first step in creating the assessment district, which would ultimately go to a vote of the 180 property owners within the proposed district. The assessment, a self-imposed fee, is expected to raise $428,000 in 2004, its first year. The fee would vary per property owner, White said.

But a vocal band of business owners opposed to the measure says any amount is too much. They have put their displeasure on display, plastering store windows with handmade signs warning that they are being taxed out of town.

They say they have already paid their fair share of the millions the city has poured into sprucing up streets with decorative sidewalks and palm trees, contributing to downtown Ventura’s recent economic revival.