Downtown Willow Glen's Community Benefit Improvement District:
Serving Willow Glen at the Community Level
Willow Glen's history, neighborhoods and business district create a unique dynamic within the city of San Jose. To maintain its charm and small town appeal property owners in downtown Willow Glen created a Community Benefit Improvement District (CBID).
A cornerstone for maintaining the renaissance of Downtown Willow Glen.
Willow Glen stands out as a lifestyle center and is hugely improved from the down-days not so many years ago. But in a rapidly evolving climate for retail business and professional services, maintaining this advantage means being able to act fast and focus hard on issues - rather than wait for City Hall to get things done. Your CBID enables the Willow Glen Business Association to do so. Its locally-raised funds enable us to expedite action on issues ranging from graffiti removal and tree trimming to parking management, landscaping and support for community events. The result: A reliable foundation for maintaining, improving and promoting San Jose's most popular business district.
Funded and managed locally to benefit Willow Glen.
San Jose features a wide range of business districts. Only Willow Glen offers your business the advantages of having a CBID. These are two-fold:.
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Having a CBID in no way decreases the services that the City of San Jose is obligated to provide Willow Glen.
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The money that property owners contribute to the CBID for Downtown Willow Glen goes directly to improving and maintaining this business district and nowhere else. It's your money spent where it matters most: Locally. Funds raised in Willow Glen stay in Willow Glen.
Why CBID?
There are no single players when it comes to maintaining and promoting any business district. Even though many issues are best handled at the community level, doing so has to be done in partnership with the City, property owners, business owners, residents and customers. Our CBID provides the WGBA vital leverage to do this. Raising money from assessments on every parcel in the district, it provides a guaranteed financial base for maintaining and enhancing Downtown Willow Glen - and a springboard for funding events and promotions that are enormously popular and contribute greatly to WGBA's annual budget, allowing the WGBA to do even more.
Willow Glen's CBID was approved by property owners within the the CBID footprint in 2008; it was implemented in 2010.
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Since its implementation in 2010 the CBID has provided over $1.7 million toward improving, maintaining and promoting the Downtown Willow Glen business district. The WGBA has leveraged this stable source of funds by creating events and promotions that have raised additional funds.
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CBID benefits over 300 businesses in Downtown Willow Glen.
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Local oversight for more than 30 critical services is empowered by CBID including:
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Sidewalk maintenance
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Graffiti and trash removal
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Landscape maintenance, tree trimming and plantings
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Parking space rental in the Bank of America lot for public parking
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Advertising and promotion of the district
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Special events to bring consumers to the district
All property owners and businesses located within the footprint of the CBID are automatically members of the WGBA with no annual membership dues. Businesses located outside of the CBID may apply for associate membership in the WGBA for an annual fee.
CBID by the Numbers
For more details on Willow Glen's CBID and its benefits check out the Frequently Asked Questions, Finance and Services pages or click below to download the Fall 2017 Update on the Willow Glen CBID. Here is a brief summary of the CBID:
(CBID) FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How is the CBID managed?
The Willow Glen Business Association (WGBA) is the management entity for the CBID for Downtown Willow Glen. The Board of Directors consists of property owners, business owners and community members. The Board governs the organization, ensuring that the funds are collected and spent according to the District Management Plan. Meetings of the board and its subcommittees are subject to the Ralph M. Brown Act and must be open to the public. The Willow Glen CBID will last for 15 years and upon the 15th year, the property owners may vote to renew the CBID.
Does the City of San Jose reduce services because Willow Glen has a CBID?
Absolutely not, which is one of the main attractions with a CBID. A service baseline agreement is entered into with all City agencies that provide services to downtown Willow Glen. The CBID holds those agencies accountable for continuing to provide services and under California law, the City is not allowed to cut services specific to our district unless it is making cuts City wide. The WGBA board took it a step further and had a letter authored and signed by Mayor Reed and District 6 Councilmember Oliverio pledging to maintain City services within the CBID (see letter dated July 14, 2008).
Who was the consultant who helped initiate the CBID and who paid for his contract?
Marco LiMandri was the consultant and his company is NewCity America. Since 1990, Marco and New City America has worked for and advised in the consideration and formation of over 45 special assessment districts, BIDs, PBIDs, Neighborhood Improvement Districts, Special Service Areas or Community Benefit Districts in California and throughout the US. He hails from San Diego where he formed the BIDs and CBIDs in Little Italy, a world-class neighborhood business district where he grew up and continues to live with his large family.
In 2007, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed earmarked funds to pay the consultant's fees as a way to help support the efforts of the Willow Glen Business Association build a more vital economic engine for the district and the City as a whole. The Mayor and Councilmember Oliverio considered the CBID in Willow Glen as the first of many opportunities city-wide for our neighborhood districts.
Where is the Willow Glen Community Benefit Improvement District?
Essentially, most commercial properties on and around Lincoln Avenue between Minnesota Avenue to Lester Avenue and Broadway Avenue.
How much does the CBID cost and when and how are assessments made?
Assessments vary for each property and is based on three components: lot size, building size and linear street frontage with a cost multiplier tied to each and based on methodology used in dozens of other CBIDs. The CBID assessment is included in property owners' tax bills. Properties are categorized into two zones. Learn more in the Finance section.
Do Willow Glen residents pay a CBID assessment?
ABSOLUTELY NOT! No one outside the boundaries of the CBID pays any assessment for the CBID.
(CBID) FINANCE
Annual Operating Budget* Summary for FY19-20 (July 1, 2019 - June 30, 2020)
Amount
Item
Sidewalk Operations, Beautification and Order Programs
District Identify and Streetscape Improvements
Administration/Corporate Operations
Contingency/Reserves
TOTAL
$161,574.21
$28,666.39
$65,150.89
$5,212.07
$260,603.56
*Due to grants, events, and sponsorships the overall projected operating budget of the Willow Glen Business Association exceeds $400,000 annually. The budget above reflects only those fees raised specifically by the CBID assessment.
Assessment Methodology: How property assessments are calculated
Zone
Zone 1
$.119 per square feet of building
Street Frontage
Acreage of Property
Bldg Size
$.063 per square foot of land
$8.905 per linear foot
Zone 2
$5.553 per linear foot
$.063 per square foot of land
$.073 per square feet of building
METHODOLOGY EXAMPLE
Zone 1
Essentially most commercial property from Minnesota to Willow Street, including all properties fronting Lincoln Ave
7,405 sq. ft. x $.063= $466.52
Item
Price
Street Frontage
Acreage of Property
50 Linear Feet x $8.905= $445.25
Building Size
2,388 sq. ft. x $.119= $284.17
Annual TOTAL: $1,195.94
Zone 2
Essentially most commercially zoned property from Willow Street to Lester Avenue, including all properties fronting Lincoln Ave
7,405 sq. ft. x $.063= $466.52
Item
Price
Street Frontage
Acreage of Property
50 Linear Feet x $5.553= $277.65
Building Size
2,388 sq. ft. x $.073= $174.32
Annual TOTAL: $918.49
SERVICES
Services funded by the CBID
Sidewalk Operations, Beautification and Order Programs (SOBOP)
Sidewalk maintenance (sweeping, steam cleaning, power washing, gum and graffiti removal), trash removal, installation of trash cans, landscape maintenance, tree trimming, plantings, parking management, banners and decorations.
District Identify and Streetscape Improvements (DISI)
Special events, marketing, promotions, branding, pedestrian locator signs, public space development, walking/locator map, advertising, communications.
Administration (ADMIN)
Advocacy, public relations, communications, business development and recruitment, management, administrative costs, insurance, financial reporting.