Arcadia City Council approves $70,000 to help the Downtown Business Association set up a business-improvement district. The district would tax commercial property owners to revitalize the area.
Arcadia launches the new Arcadia Downtown Business Association, with plans to revitalize the downtown district. Matt McSweeney is the association's chairperson and owner of Matt Denny's Ale House Restaurant on East Huntington Drive. City officials will spend about $90,000 on a parking study and about $18,000 in redevelopment funds to get Arcadia Downtown Business Association off the ground. The revitalization plans should work nicely with the slated opening of the Gold Line station at the northwest corner of North First Avenue and East Santa Clara Street by 2014.
The Arcadia Business Association has requested a moratorium on beauty and nail shop in the downtown business district. There are reportedly 16 salons downtown and another 8 more on First Avenue south of California.
Arcadia property owners will be asked to renew a street lighting fee schedule and assessment in June, when funding is set to expire. Officials warned that without an extension of the lighting assessment district, the city would lose about $420,000 a year. Unless the assessment is renewed, the city might have to cut services such as police protection, fire and emergency medical response services, library services, and recreation programs. Arcadia property owners currently pay 40% of street lighting repair and maintenance costs, while the city covers the other 60%. That would remain unchanged in the new assessment district, but the amounts each household pays will be different. Family households in residential neighborhoods will be charged $28.44 a year, while single-family homes along major thoroughfares will pay $16.73 a year.
A parcel tax in Arcadia appears to pass. Voters appear to have narrowly approved a parcel tax measure that will raise $3.4 million for the Arcadia Unified School District each year for the next five years, according to preliminary results. If the outcome is finalized, property owners would pay $228 per parcel per year in an effort to stave off additional cuts in the classroom. Measure A, which required a two-thirds vote to pass, was approved by 67.61% of those who voted in the district's boundaries. The vote should be finalized tomorrow.
Arcadia property owners voted to continue paying for a portion of their street lights under a new formula after lighting district funds expired in June. 66% of the vote was cast in favor of extending about $428,600 of annual funding to maintain and repair street lights. A similar proposal on the ballot failed less than 2 years ago.
Thomas McKernan, a 60-year-old Arcadia resident, plans to help streamline the government bureaucracies that often bog down business ventures. He is the new chairman of California Business Roundtable.
"A Late Summer Night's Dream" was the theme of a benefit party organized to raise funds for the los Angeles County Arboretum. A detailed description of the entire evening is given.
To spur downtown business and help merchants fix up storefronts, the City Council has approved a $326,000 package of marketing programs, business incentives and no-interest loans.
California Philharmonic persists despite financial straits. It owes "quite a bit of money to quite a lot of people," including about $2,000 apiece to 60 musicians, but the orchestra has no plans to go out of business, said Music Director Victor Vener. See also Arcadia Weekly, p. 1 and 6, November 1, 2012.
Downtown 2000, the redevelopment project that has served as a lightning rod for discontent at City Hall, received an Award of Excellence this week from the California Redevelopment Association.
The City will pay $1.25 million to the Sully Miller Contracting Co. to settle a breach-of-contract lawsuit the company filed after it was fired from the Downtown 2000 project.
Developer Rick Caruso of Caruso Affiliated is no longer pursuing a deal with Santa Anita Park owners MI Developments to develop an outdoor mall in the race track's parking lot. The project was known as The Shops at Santa Anita. Caruso said, "We're not pursuing it, because of the (Magna Entertainment Corp.) bankruptcy...and everything else." Arcadia city councilman Mickey Segal said it's a loss of "a projected $2.5 million to $3 million of revenue (each year) to the city" in sales and property tax.
One year has passed since the Sully-Miller Contracting Co. filed a $2 million breach-of-contract suit against Arcadia, claiming the City illegally terminated it from the Downtown 2000 project.
The City Council will vote on approval of a property acquisition plan with Rusnak Arcadia tonight. The opposition, comprised of seven former mayors, don't want Redevelopment Agency money to help a private business buy five nearby properties.
Los Angeles County total property values are on the rise again. The county as a whole saw its first increase in two years, at 1.49%, according to the 2010-201the Los Angeles County Assessor's Office annual property roll report. Walnut, Temple City and San Marino saw some of the San Gabriel Valley's greatest growth in property values last year. Arcadia's property values went up 2.8%.
Many San Gabriel Valley cities are seeing an increase in property tax revenues in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, namely San Marino, Arcadia, Bradbury, Alhambra and South Pasadena. Arcadia's property tax revenue is expected to be $3,359,282.80 compared to $3,294,314.77 in 2008-2009. Other cities' figures are given. In the average city, property taxes make up 11% of the city budget.