Benicia's First Street Tree Lights To Stay On

BENICIA, CA - From the City of Benicia: The Benicia City Council certified the results of the protest votes on the renewal of the Benicia Business Improvement District (BID) at a City Council meeting that ran until nearly 1:30 AM Tuesday night.

Over the past month, there had been a concerted effort by some First Street business owners to protest the BID. They solicited letters of protests from business owners in order to secure the sufficient number of protest letters needed to terminate the BID, and in doing so, remove the decorative tree lights on First Street.

At 6:30 PM, thirty minutes before the 7:00 PM deadline on September 5th, the opponents of the BID submitted 88 protest letters. Together with the six letters already received by the City, there were 94 letters of protest. However, twenty-six (26) of those protest letters were subsequently withdrawn by business owners, who, after learning more information about the BID and how a successful protest
would dissolve the Downtown Benicia Alliance (DBA) and remove the decorative tree lights on First Street, changed course and submitted protest withdrawal letters. Also included in the protest letters were 9 letters for which the City deemed as provisional because those businesses do not have current business
licenses, nevertheless the City still counted the provisional letters in the final vote count. As a result, the final protest count was 68 letters of protest valued at 32.8% of the BID, falling far short of the over 50% threshold needed to terminate the BID.

Shortly after midnight on September 6th, City Economic Development Manager and Acting Deputy City Manager Mario Giuliani announced to the City Council the results of the protest, saying, “the effort to protest the BID has failed… the lights have been saved”. He later credited the effort to save the decorative lights to the First Street business owners and, in particular, the Board Members of the DBA.

The BID was first formed in 2012 with a five-year term. BID’s are governed by The Property and Business Improvement District Law of 1994 (Streets and Highways Code §36600 et. seq.). This law authorizes cities and counties to form and renew property and business improvement districts upon petition by a
weighted majority of the business owners located within the boundaries of the given district, in Benicia’s case it is businesses located on First Street.

The Benicia Business Improvement District (BID) is a partnership of downtown businesses that assess themselves for the installation and maintenance of the decorative tree lights in downtown Benicia. The revenue generated passes through the City of Benicia, as a collection mechanism, directly to the

improvement district’s management organization, the Downtown Benicia Alliance. The Downtown Benicia Alliance is entirely made up of volunteer downtown businesses owners. In addition to supporting the lights, the DBA cosponsors Benicia Art Walk and the Benicia Film Festival. Additionally, the DBA
advocates on behalf of First Street merchants for other improvements, such as the slurry sealing project on First Street that was completed in April and the new street signs that were installed in 2016.

As noted last week by an earlier press release from the City of Benicia, the existing tree lights are currently being removed for tree pruning, which will occur later this month. Now that the BID has been renewed, new decorative lights are scheduled to be installed in October.

Moving forward, tree pruning and installation of new lights will occur on a routine basis; each year one-third of the lights will be removed, the trees pruned and new lights installed. In addition, photocell technology will be used to ensure the lights are only illuminated during hours of darkness, and a new maintenance company has been hired.

After the conclusion of the City Council meeting, the DBA Chair, Leah Shelhorn of Studio 41 thanked the principles of Civitas Advisors who were in attendance at the meeting and responsible for providing the legal and technical expertise to form and renew the BID, she shared with them words from her prepared remarks, saying “Civitas, in Latin, is a body of citizens and the social contract that binds them together; in other words, a group of people working together towards a common goal. And I quote Civitas website “There is no better word to describe our team and our work”. We feel the same about the Downtown Benicia Alliance."

Image via Yoonahkim/Wikimedia Creative Commons