Discover Pacific Beach is still looking for ways to make Pacific Beach a little nicer to discover after some Pacific Beach residents and property owners rejected the formation of a maintenance assessment district (MAD) in June.
The district would have charged property owners within a certain area a fee to clean around Garnet Avenue and neighboring streets. It would also pay for extra police and other services.
However, several neighbors and property owners saw it as just another tax and organized to defeat the proposal, saying homeowners shouldn’t have to pay for the mess made by bar and restaurant patrons.
So Discover Pacific Beach went back to the drawing board and came back with a new MAD proposal that would create a smaller district that includes the west end of Garnet Avenue, a small area of Mission Boulevard and the boardwalk. Only commercial property owners within those boundaries would be assessed the maintenance fee. Residential areas would not be included.
Executive Director Benjamin Nicholls said the new district would raise $200,000, about half the amount originally sought. That would pay for pressure washing sidewalks only along Garnet Avenue, graffiti removal and about few extra police on the weekend in the bar areas.
Nicholls went before Pacific Beach Town Council in July and must present the plan to the Pacific Beach Planning Committee before approaching City Council with any type of proposal. He said he wants to come before City Council the end of the year.
A potentially smaller district means less money, which means less service than originally planned. This excludes trash pickup in the residential neighborhoods and extra police patrol along the boardwalk as previously proposed.
“We don’t have to solve every problem right now, we can solve problems down the road,” Nicholls said.
But at least one business owner says those problems can be solved with money that businesses already pay into the Business Improvement District represented by about 1200 businesses associated with Discover Pacific Beach.
Kathie ” who goes by her first name only ” owner of the Buff clothing shop at 1341 Garnet Ave., said although her business wasn’t included in the original area, smaller retail and other businesses shouldn’t have to pay extra for something individual businesses already do themselves.
“We are a retail business and we clean up after ourselves. We’re out sweeping our porch every day,” she said. “If they want to assess somebody, assess the bars.”
Trashcans maintained by Discover Pacific Beach, including one near the Buff, were removed earlier in the summer but were quickly replaced when Pacific Beach businesses called to ask for them, Nicholls said. Discover Pacific Beach maintains about 12 trashcans along Garnet Avenue.
Businesses in the Pacific Beach BID pay about $150,000 a year.
Discover Pacific Beach raises an approximately $400,000 for operating expenses through fundraisers and events such as BeachFest, Nicholls said.
Nicholls said he also had to rehire a two-person cleaning crew he had laid-off go in June.
The organization also helped pay for the Community Court. The court is currently funded through August with a grant from San Diego County, Nicholls said, and should be funded through next year with fees charged by the City Attorney’s Office.
The city monitors about 20 pedestrian “litter containers” along Garnet Avenue and about 39 along Mission Boulevard on a daily basis, said Dennis Williams with Environmental Services.
Two litter containers near Crystal Pier were temporarily removed during a project to bring an section near the pier into compliance with the American Disabilities Act and will be replaced after the city installs no parking red curbs nearby, he said.
The city also removed, repaired and replaced a littler container on the 1500 block of Garnet Avenue. The container, which is should be for pedestrian litter, contained too much business waste and had to be repaired, he said.
For more information call Discover Pacific Beach at (858) 273-3303.