*** Editor’s note: La Jolla Village News is the media partner for the La Jolla Village Merchants Association as it seeks to grow the Village’s Business Improvement District through its educational efforts in 2015. *** Education is the goal of La Jolla Village Merchants Association this year. And the first lesson to be learned is that merchants can accomplish more collectively than individually through a business improvement district.
\nBusiness improvement districts are city-designated, geographic-based areas where business owners are assessed annually to fund activities and improvements promoting the business district.
\nSan Diego\u2019s district program dates to 1970. Today, there are 18 active, self-assessment San Diego business improvement districts representing more than 11,000 small businesses. Those jointly raise upwards of $1.3 million annually.
\nLa Jolla\u2019s district encompasses 30 blocks in the downtown Village and represents more than 1,350 businesses. The Bird Rock and La Jolla Shores neighborhoods are not within the merchants association\u2019s district boundaries.
\nMerchants association executive director Sheila Fortune noted there\u2019s “a lot going on now,” adding that “It\u2019s going to get even crazier.”
\nFortune explained how the business improvement district process works. She noted all businesses within a district’s designated boundaries, even businesses maintained in residences by the self-employed, are required to get an annual business license.
\n“Once the city of San Diego determines you are within our three-zone business district,” Fortune said, “they send out an invoice with the (district’s) fees, which are based on a formula for each different zone.” Fortune added that “you have to pay that assessment to be in business” or face penalties for non-payment, which can accumulate and ultimately end up in collections.
\n“It\u2019s really not a choice; it\u2019s a tax if you\u2019re doing business in La Jolla,” noted Fortune, adding that the merchants association gets reimbursed monthly from district assessments collected by the city.
\nDistrict maintenance fees range from $45 to $350 annually depending on the size and type of business.
\n“We try to make that money last as far as we can,” said Fortune, noting such assessments are “not a lot of money to run a (district) our size and do the things we\u2019ve done the last couple years.”
\nThe merchants association is the second largest of the city\u2019s 18 districts, behind Pacific Beach\u2019s Discover PB.
\n“We are the two biggest (business improvement districts) by far representing the most merchants,” said Fortune, adding, “If we were to collect all the (district) fees for all the businesses, La Jolla would be much bigger than PB.”
\nIn only its third year of existence, the merchants association is still in the process of laying its financial foundation. Fortune noted many of the other longer-lived districts citywide have funding mechanisms already in place \u2014 mutual assessment districts, property-based improvement districts \u2014 to help pay for their promotional activities.
\n“A lot of people think that everything we do is all done with (district) fees,” said Fortune. “It\u2019s not happening like that. They (other districts) have multiple sources of revenue generation.”
\nFortune said the merchants group is headlong already this year into planning special events.
\n“I\u2019ve got a ton of ideas,” she said, adding that the district “wants to make sure we don\u2019t take away from some of the events that are already happening here.”
\nSome special events, like the La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival, are seeking the merchants association out for further involvement.
\n“They have been here the last six years,” Fortune said, “and now they\u2019ve come to us for partnership. We want to figure out ways we can grow that because it\u2019s become known all around the world.”
\nThere also will be the potential to host other film festivals in town once Boffo Cinemas, now under construction, opens this year on Fay Avenue.
\nThe merchants association is also hard at work lobbying local government to aid in helping to quench the stench at La Jolla Cove. It\u2019s a periodic problem, with foul smells caused from build-up of animal waste.
\n“We\u2019ve been working on it for more than a year and a half when the first treatments were started,” said Fortune, noting that the city and Mayor Kevin Faulconer have been swayed to back “monthly treatments” to alleviate the odor problem.
\nThe merchants’ plate is also full operating the La Jolla Village Information Center, open seven days a week at 1162 Prospect St. The center is a gateway to La Jolla, introducing the visitor to all the community has to offer in dining, recreation and shopping.
\nThe association is also in the throes of “adopting” the annual Cove Fourth of July fireworks display, plagued of late with fundraising problems.
\n“We\u2019re hoping to partner (with organizers) and try to take that over,” Fortune said. “We want it to be a positive rollout this year.”
\nFortune and La Jolla\u2019s district have also introduced the La Jolla Village Marketing Collective, which counsels small businesses on how to better market themselves.
\n“We have so many small mom-and-pop shops,” Fortune said, “that don\u2019t have the opportunity to do (much) marketing or social media. So I\u2019ve created this marketing collaborative group which meets monthly at a brown-bag luncheon at the library to create synergy and where they can come and learn Marketing 101.”
\nThe Sparkle & Shine promotional banner campaign, in which La Jolla businesses pay to advertise on banners strung at prominent places communitywide, has been another successful district project. The fundraiser, designed to generate revenue through steam-cleaning Village sidewalks and do other beautification and improvements in La Jolla Village, has already borne fruit.
\n“In three months, we\u2019ve raised $60,000,” noted Fortune.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
*** Editor’s note: La Jolla Village News is the media partner for the La Jolla Village Merchants Association as it seeks to grow the Village’s Business Improvement District through its educational efforts in 2015. *** Education is the goal of La Jolla Village Merchants Association this year. And the first lesson to be learned is […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":281260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"There's strength in numbers, Fortune says of business improvement district","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}