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<br />2004 ANNUAL REPORT <br />FOR THE <br />DOWNTOWN SANTA ANA BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT <br /> <br />Background <br /> <br />The Downtown Santa Ana Business Improvement District (BID) was established in February <br />1984 by the Santa Ana City Council. The Community Redevelopment and Housing Commission <br />(CRHC) of the City of Santa Ana, as the BID Advisory Board, is responsible for the preparation <br />and administration of the BID's budget and annual report, its promotional calendar, marketing <br />and public relations programs, security and maintenance plans, and physical improvement <br />projects. <br /> <br />Improvement Area Boundaries <br /> <br />The geographic boundaries of the district remain unchanged from the original 1984 area, and <br />they include over 700 retail, service and professional members (Attachment A). <br /> <br />Assessment Formula <br /> <br />For the 2005 budget and assessment, the CRHC is proposing to reduce this year's annual <br />assessment to 25 percent of the formula stated for each business license category in the original <br />1984 ordinance (Attachment B). <br /> <br />Summary of Improvements and Activities <br /> <br />On October 6, 2003, the Santa Ana City Council appointed the Community Redevelopment and <br />Housing Commission (CRHC) as the Downtown Santa Ana Business Improvement District <br />(BID) Advisory Board. As the BID Advisory Board, the CRHC is responsible for <br />recommending an annual budget by early November 2004 and other policies pertaining to the <br />BID. <br /> <br />The CRHC conducted extensive community outreach to develop a BID budget. This included <br />two community forums. The first community forum, held on August 17, 2004, focused on <br />understanding the general issues affecting Downtown businesses. Letters were sent to over 700 <br />businesses in the area, and Commissioners together called, visited or dropped off flyers to 140 <br />randomly selected businesses to invite them to the first community forum. Five general themes <br />emerged from this forum: 1) business/government relations; 2) infrastructure, cleanliness, <br />maintenance; 3) change; 4) Downtown Santa Ana's image; and 5) lack of participation. <br /> <br />Two policy options emerged from the initial conversations with business owners and the first <br />community forum. They are: 1) recommend keeping the BID, but substantially revamp the fee <br />assessment, boundaries, activities and governance structures so that the BID functions as a <br />positive tool for Downtown businesses, or 2) recommend dissolving the BID. Rather than make <br /> <br />19C-6 <br />