Chamber, City Exploring South Beverly Drive Business Improvement District

A business improvement district in Beverly Hills, the first of its kind for the city, is being explored for South Beverly Drive. The Chamber of Commerce reported back to the City Council during the Nov. 19 study session to look at the scope and potential funding for a consultant to work on the specifics of the second phase.

Chamber Executive Director Alex Stettinski said for just over a year they've been exploring the possibility for the three-block area, which extends south from Wilshire to Olympic boulevard.

A BID is a public/private partnership that performs services to a specific commercial district, such as street cleaning, beautification, public safety and in South Beverly Drive's case, for parking. BIDs can be financed either by property owner assessments or merchant assessments through county property bills. There are at least 56 BIDs in L.A. County, including in Hollywood, Santa Monica, Westwood Village and downtown L.A.

City Councilmember Julian Gold's Small Business Task Force made the first recommendation during the 2012-13 fiscal year to explore the BID. The city added $20,000 to the chamber's work plan during fiscal year 2013-14 to form the steering committee and, if 50 percent of South Beverly Drive's property owners sign on to the idea, needs $50,000 at most to hire the consultant, which could be given as a loan from the city and repaid through assessment funds.

A complex funding structure would need to be determined for property owners, but every owner would be assessed if the BID is ultimately approved at the County Assessor's Office. Stettinski said they should know in the next five to six months if 50 percent of the owners agree on a specific BID scope to move forward on a consultant to draft the next steps.

Early hopes are to have the BID set up for January 2015 and its total budget is estimated at $500,000, Stettinski added.

Through meetings between November 2012 and March 2013 with the merchants, the exploration committee learned that parking was overwhelmingly the biggest concern.

"Employees are running out every two hours to move their cars," Stettinski said. "It's a really big issue."

At a meeting in September, the chamber was able to get 10 of 60 South Beverly Drive property owners together and formed a steering committee. Every property owner, landlord and trustee was contacted about the meeting, said Stettinski. The group determined a property owner assessed BID would be more effective for South Beverly Drive.

Stettinski noted the majority of property owners were initially unsupportive of the BID idea, and that funding the bid on their dime would keep the city from looking for a long term solution to the parking issue. However, the owners learned the BID is only a temporary solution to the parking.

Between one parking garage and street parking there are 307 parking spaces total open to the public, Stettinski said, and there's a possibility to lease an additional 200 more.

A public valet is one idea proposed by the chamber, where customers drop off their vehicle to be parked in private garages on South El Camino or South Beverly and the customer pays a flat fee for a time limit. However, many property owners were skeptical that public valet would not handle enough cars.

Subsidized employee and self-parking were other BID scope ideas proposed, which Stettinski said property owners liked. Non-parking uses for the BID include street beautification, holiday lighting and marketing and branding campaigns.

A permanent parking structure in the long-term future could make eventually make the BID obsolete, Stettinski also noted.

Resident Mark Elliot spoke in favor of the BID, noting that living near South Beverly Drive, he does not see the same beautification and city services used throughout the Golden Triangle. He added that encouragement is also needed making the area more cycling-friendly, and even get bike racks.

Mayor John Mirisch noted that bike racks are coming up soon in future City Council discussions.

"I think it's a huge opportunity for that part of town," Councilmember Gold said about the BID exploration. "There are more stores down there. It feels different down there. It looks different, and I feel if we can increase the parking it will get much, much better."