Group Seeks Feedback On Shore Signs

By Carla M. Collado
Staff Writer

When it comes to community feedback, the Belmont Shore Parking and Business Improvement Area Advisory Commission is looking to get more of it.

Tomorrow (Friday), the Parking Commission’s Gateway Banner Sign Design Committee will have a meeting — open to the public — to review a second sign design and decide whether to conduct a formal survey of Shore residents and business owners on the issue.

The Parking Commission also soon will get the chance to hear from the public on another issue — whether there should be a new vote of Second Street commercial property owners following changes to the Mello-Roos community facilities district (CFD). The City Council voted Tuesday to have a public hearing on the matter at its Aug. 5 meeting.

Last week, the commission approved spending no more than $3,500 to fund more public outreach on the proposed Gateway Sign designs. Up until now, the commission had moved forward with a “sail” design for the two signs that would mark entry into the Shore.

It calls for two arching signs over both entrances to the business district in the Shore, one located at Second Street and Claremont Avenue, and the other one would be 300-320 feet west of Livingston Avenue and Second Street.

Each signage pole would hold a permanent, 2-foot-tall wooden sign that says “Belmont Shore” across the top. Underneath would be room for a three-feet-tall banner (stretching from the sidewalk to the median) to promote different events on the street, such as the Christmas Parade, Car Show, Chili Cook-Off and events organized by community activist Justin Rudd.

At 10 a.m. tomorrow at Polly’s Coffee, the Gateway Banner Sign Design Committee will discuss whether to also consider a “wave” design for the signs. It is a more traditional arched entry sign in which both the wooden sign and the event banner would span from sidewalk to median. If the committee votes in favor of a second design, it will recommend to the Parking Commission (next month) that it do some sort of formal public outreach and see which design the community prefers.

That outreach could take the form of community meetings or a mailer, but most likely would be a formal survey of Shore residents and business owners, explained Parking Commission Chair Bill Lorbeer.

The public also will get the chance to speak out on another issue, the Shore CFD election, at the City Council’s Aug. 5 meeting. At issue is whether to conduct a new vote of Second Street commercial property owners on changes to the Mello-Roos.

Property owners back in March turned down a measure to amend the CFD, which would have helped finance the purchase of a 27-space private parking lot on Park Avenue (just south of Second Street), to refinance 1993 bonds (also used for parking improvements) and to fund future parking improvements in the area.

The CFD changes were part of a larger plan by the Parking Commission to acquire $5.8 million in bonds from the city to fund alley and parking lot improvements and bring additional parking to the area. The commission plans to repay the bonds using $200,000 in annual parking meter revenues and its Mello-Roos fund.

Since the Mello-Roos fund is fed by a special tax that commercial property owners on Second Street pay twice a year — 12 cents currently are levied — the special election was necessary.

However, the Parking Commission questioned the fairness of voting procedures used in the election, mainly that property owners got one vote per each acre or portion of an acre. On May 13, the City Council approved an alternative voting procedure for CFD elections, that each property owner gets one vote for each dollar of special tax to be levied on their land.

At August’s public hearing, the council will vote on a resolution to conduct a new Shore CFD election in the fall using the new voting procedures.