Santa Barbara’s Downtown and Old Town Business Improvement areas were officially disestablished on February 11 by City Council. The two taxation districts had underwritten events, music, and tourism through Downtown Santa Barbara, an entity that also voted itself out of existence that morning, Executive Director Robin Elander told the council.
Those endeavors will be funded through the new Community Business Improvement District established last June, which expects to raise $2.2 million annually across 536 parcels — and their 366 landowners — by an assessment based on parcel size. The funds will go to cleaning up downtown sidewalks and gutters, as well as promoting the district, which runs from Sola to Highway 101 and from Chapala to Anacapa streets, as well as along the east side of Anacapa.
Elander told the Independent that all 94 members of the downtown organization had voted to disband and move their assets to a new group, the nonprofit Downtown Santa Barbara Improvement Association. Being so new, they were just now hiring staff, Elander said, but she planned to stay involved. Their board was a mix of new and old members, she said: “The best of the old organization and new services for downtown.”
