FORMATION PROCESS

Forming a Green Benefit District requires a robust community engagement process and demonstrated support. It starts with community members who love their neighborhood's open spaces, but see a clear need for improvements and additional resources to supplement the City's existing services. 

1: PLANNING & FEASIBILITY

A group of neighbors explores whether and how a GBD could work for their neighborhood.  They conduct outreach through stakeholder meetings, community events, pre-survey, and canvassing. The feasibility survey (coming Sept 1) is a particularly important tool for collecting feedback and developing an understanding of the neighborhood’s interests, priorities, and willingness to support a GBD. Results from this survey will help determine if and where there is enough property owner support for the district formation effort to proceed to the next step. 

2: FORMATION DOCUMENTS

Through a series of public meetings, the community must create a Management Plan that outlines the goals,  boundaries, services and assessment methodology for the proposed district. An Assessment Engineer helps inform this process, and develops an accompanying Engineer's Report to provide a legal justification for the assessment. This process includes an extensive public outreach and benefit evaluation process, to ensure that the GBD boundaries contain only parcels that will receive a special benefit from proposed services, activities and improvements. Both the Management Plan and Engineer's Report must be approved by Public Works and the City Attorney's office.

3: PETITION

If the Management Plan and Engineer's Report are approved by the City Attorney, the community can launch a petition process to obtain the Board of Supervisors' approval to initiate a ballot. Each parcel within the proposed district will receive a petition indicating their individualized assessment and the percentage it represents of the total assessment budget. If the petition is signed by property owners representing 30% of the proposed district budget, the Board of Supervisors may initiate a ballot.

4: BALLOT

If the petition phase demonstrates sufficient support and the Board of Supervisors approves, a ballot proceeding will be launched. The Department of Elections issues a ballot to each property owner within the proposed boundaries of a GBD. This would be a special ballot election independent of the general elections in November.  For the district to be formed, a simple majority (50% + 1) of the returned weighted ballots must be in favor. If the vote hits this required mark, the Board of Supervisors will adopt an ordinance to officially establish a GBD.