Fulton Avenue Association - News & Events

Guiding Fulton's upgrade

Business improvement district helped pay for security, beautification.

May 31, 2007

Section: ARDEN CARMICHAEL

By: Chelsea Phua

Bee Staff Writer

Q & A with Melinda Eppler, chairwoman of Fulton Avenue Association

Growing up in Sacramento, Melinda M. Eppler said Fulton Avenue in Arden Arcade functioned as the main street for her family. She witnessed its deterioration in the late 1980s and early 1990s as longtime businesses closed down or moved away. In July 2003, Eppler became the executive director of the Fulton Avenue Association, a 450-member business improvement district.

We asked Eppler about her background, the association's role in revitalizing the area, its relationship with the county and how it would be affected if Arden Arcade became a city.

Q: How did you start working for the Fulton Avenue Association?: A: While in between jobs, former Supervisor Muriel Johnson suggested that I speak to a small committee of association board members about the executive director position.
Q: Where did you work before joining the association?: A: I was director of communications at Sierra Health Foundation for five years (1998 to 2003).

The foundation recruited me from the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, where I served under Gov. Pete Wilson as director of public affairs.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I worked for Accel Partners in San Francisco, Bakula Public Relations in Sacramento, and helped to manage the Sandy Smoley for Congress campaign. I also helped my dad, who was a career lobbyist for the state's health care industry, start up a newsletter focused on health policy. From 1986 to 1989, I lived in Washington, where I worked for Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, first as his receptionist, then as his scheduling secretary.
Q: What is your educational background?.: A: I went to Menlo College, a small liberal arts college in Menlo Park from 1982-1984. I transferred to the University of California, Santa Barbara, where I majored in sociology and political science, graduating in 1986.
Q: What is the Fulton Avenue Association?: A: The Fulton Avenue Association is a group of property and business owners who tax themselves (through the property tax mechanism) to fund a property and business improvement district, or PBID. The PBID is Fulton Avenue between Arden Way and Auburn Boulevard.

The association has about 450 members, comprised of 130 property owners and 320 business owners. Ten members sit on the association's board of directors. I meet monthly with the board.

Each of the 130 property owners in the district is taxed based on the size of their individual parcel -- .02 cents per square foot of the total parcel, plus $8.50 per linear foot of Fulton Avenue frontage. The range of individual assessments in the district is $565 per year to $17,000 per year. The total amount collected from all properties is $370,000 annually. Each year since the association's inception in 1998, the county of Sacramento has matched, or closely matched, the association's total assessment amount using transient occupancy tax (hotel tax money) or earmarked economic development funds.
Q: Why and how was the association formed?: A: In 1997, a core group of property owners concerned about the deterioration of Fulton Avenue got together with Supervisor Muriel Johnson to discuss economic development and improvement options. It was suggested they try and form a PBID. It took about a year for the group to organize a significant cohort of support and get the paperwork to the Board of Supervisors for approval, but with the help of John Lambeth, an area expert on PBID formation, and with the full support of the Board of Supervisors, they made it happen.

Because PBIDs are public/ private partnerships and involve public money, the PBID formation process is a multistep process that includes public input. It involves public meetings of owners and stakeholders (neighborhood associations, area leaders, etc.), setting district boundaries and circulating a petition.

A district plan is developed, outlining what types of programs will be implemented and what kinds of physical improvements will be made. Then a confidential ballot is sent out to all property owners for a vote. If a majority of the owners vote in favor of PBID formation, the formation package goes before the Board of Supervisors for approval. A PBID term usually expires after five years. The Fulton Avenue Association was first created in 1998, renewed in 2003, and will be up for renewal at the end of 2008, taking the PBID to 2013, should the property owners elect to continue.
Q: What does the association do?: A: The Fulton Avenue Association manages four major programs that are designed to improve and strengthen the business district:

Economic development: Improving economic development on Fulton Avenue and in the Arden Arcade area was a real driving force in the creation of the Fulton Avenue Association. The association offers business improvement incentives to its members. We have a landscape improvement grant program that we have developed with the help of the county's planning department. If a property owner wants to add or improve landscaping on their property, they can apply for an association grant to help them make the improvement. The goal is to make it as painless as possible for property owners to do something that is going to improve the way their property looks, while improving the overall district as well.

Security: About 25 percent of our annual operating budget is spent on added security. We hire a rotation of off-duty sheriff's deputies to patrol the district five nights a week, 11 months out of the year. During the holiday season, the coverage increases to seven nights a week. The "Fulton 4" deputies have a cell phone accessible to all our members while they are on duty. The personal level of service provided by the deputies has helped to keep crime down.

Marketing: The association has a marketing and advertising program which, for the last four years, has been exclusively focused on (Christmas) holiday promotion. In the past, the association organized and hosted events such as a CarFest, and SnowFest. For the past four years, we have partnered with a number of community groups to host the annual Arden Arcade Fourth of July Parade.

Streetscape: The district's most visible and expensive program. The streetscape budget has been subsidized significantly by the county's matching funds and other state and federal transportation funds secured by the county Department of Transportation. Streetscape projects began early with an upgrade to the district's antiquated water main. Unsatisfactory water pressure on the avenue and in surrounding neighborhoods was a daily detriment to businesses and residents, not to mention a fire hazard. The cost to upgrade the system and double the fire hydrants was about the same as constructing a 20,000- square foot commercial building in the area.

The association has added a number of monuments at major intersections to reflect a piece of the area's history. The installation of ornate lamp posts, which hold Fulton Avenue's branded "elegant F," has been both an aesthetic and safety improvement for our customers and local pedestrians.

Construction of the landscaped medians was a huge undertaking. But what we have today is a beautiful, natural path of trees, where there once was a mass of dirty asphalt. This past year, we added two new in-street monuments to the medians marking the center of the Fulton district. We are uplighting all of the palm trees, have ordered custom street signs and have developed a district cleanup program. The association has hired a contractor who is in charge of ensuring that commuter garbage, strewn newspapers, cigarette butts and other wayward debris is removed on a daily basis.

After seven years of planning and two years of implementation, all of the overhead utility cable on Fulton Avenue is about to go underground.
Q: Businesses within the district generate about $7 million in sales tax for the county, making the area the county's largest sales tax generator. How do you use the money to make improvements to the area?: A: Now in its ninth year of operation, the association will have collected approximately $3.3 million in assessment monies from property owners by the end of this year. To date, close to $18.7 million has been leveraged by other sources to pay for the projects I have described.
Q: What are some of the challenges encountered by the association?: A: It has been difficult prioritizing projects based on cost and implementation. We have a great big master plan that outlines a variety of projects, and while decisions have been pretty easy to make about which projects we would like to do ahead of others, the right amount of funding hasn't always been available. The funding comes around eventually though, so it works out.

There are challenges we could easily have had with the underground project. But we have been fortunate to have the county executive and county supervisors be our staunch advocates with the utility companies, so that project has gone smoother than anticipated.
Q: How does the association work with the county?: A: We work with many different county departments -- Planning and Community Development, Transportation, Economic Development. From a funding standpoint, the county collects the assessments from property owners and sends the checks in installments to the office. We have our own bank accounts and manage our own operating funds. Any matching or other funds are held by the county and dispersed to the county or other appropriate entity, depending on the project. Jim Pardun from the county Department of Economic Development sits on our board as the county's representative.
Q: What does the association or its members think about the incorporation efforts to make Arden Arcade its own city?: A: The association has not formally participated in the incorporation discussion. We have enjoyed a successful partnership with the county of Sacramento since our inception. All of the department's we work with have been incredibly responsive to our needs.

The association is a nonprofit organization with a strict mission. Our bylaws dictate that "the corporation shall not, except in insubstantial degree, engage in any activities or exercise any powers that are not in furtherance of the primary purposes of this corporation."
Q: If Arden Arcade does become a city of its own, how would the change affect the association?: A: The PBID has to partner with a public jurisdiction. That public jurisdiction could be a new city.

The Bee's Chelsea Phua can be reached at (916) 321-1132 or cphua@sacbee.com.