San Ysidro is in the process of getting new representation on how it uses local taxes collected from around 700 businesses in the area’s core.
Business owners have formed an advisory committee after city of San Diego officials — without any public explanation — removed a previous nonprofit from overseeing the area’s business improvement district.
For more than a year, multiple bodies have been involved in the management of the district which collects taxes from business owners and is meant to fund improvements. But the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce, which previously managed the district, struggled with its cash flow and appears to no longer be in operation.
Now, what’s known as the San Ysidro Business Improvement District Advisory Committee is set to take over management. An outside consultant is helping with the process.
In the meantime, businesses are still paying their annual assessments. But owners say they continue to struggle with attracting more customers to San Ysidro.
“We don’t have a high level of financial education,” Silvana Alaníz, a member of the committee who owns the restaurant El Rincón, said in Spanish during a recent meeting. “We need support.”
Miguel Aguirre, another committee member whose company manages the McDonald’s building near a trolley station, said the main corridor along San Ysidro Boulevard is “drying up.” He pointed to public safety issues and its status as a pass-through location.
“People are afraid to cross on foot and walk this extra thousand feet to the shopping district,” Aguirre said.
The budget
Business improvement districts, or BIDs, are city-designated areas where the business owners agree to pay annual taxes to fund activities and improvements. This can look like funding litter cleanup, installing signage, hiring security guards or hosting special events.
The San Ysidro district stretches more than two miles roughly along Interstate 5, from the San Ysidro Trolley Station to Dairy Mart Road.
San Ysidro’s district typically works with a base of about $150,000 in tax revenue for their annual budget. Since the termination of the chamber’s contract in February 2024, the city’s Economic Development Department has been managing the district while being advised by the Small Business Advisory Board.
The district has proposed spending an estimated $200,000 next fiscal year, including an additional $58,000 from “assessments that, essentially, haven’t been spent over the years,” said Alex Southard, a city small business engagement specialist, reported to the Small Business Advisory Board during a recent meeting.
About $100,000 has been earmarked next year for trash pickup, while the remainder would be used for consulting services, a website and promotional materials such as mailers, she said.
Using San Ysidro’s budget, the city hired the local nonprofit Civic Community Partners to help with the management transition. Gustavo Bidart, the group’s economic and community development director, said he’s working with the new advisory committee “so that (the district) doesn’t go dormant.”
“There’s not a lot of resources and budget wise, but what we have, you have to make the best of it,” he told inewsource.
Bidart said he also plans to host workshops on how to apply for storefront improvement funds, promote businesses and manage finances.
How to attend
The San Ysidro Business Improvement District Advisory Committee has been meeting in person at least once a month to discuss issues within the area’s business core. (Click here for committee updates and scheduled meeting times.)
Some business owners have said they want the money to be used to improve the area’s public safety and draw tourism.
San Ysidro’s new committee must first become an official nonprofit to manage the business improvement district.
It must choose what kind of nonprofit they want to become: one that focuses on providing community services, one that doubles down on boosting economic growth in San Ysidro, or both. The committee will also determine if it wants to be certified as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit, a common status for chambers of commerce that would allow the group to engage in political activity.
The transition could take a year. In the meantime, the committee is providing input to the Small Businesses Advisory Board.
The chamber
Officials initially did not provide an explanation when inewsource asked last year why the city terminated the chamber’s contract.
City records that inewsource later obtained show staff had asked the chamber to resubmit six months of financial records. Five months after terminating the contract, officials also asked the chamber to pay back about $700 worth of transactions the city determined were “ineligible expenses” for BID funding.
For years, auditors flagged the chamber’s negative balances and said the group was “at risk of not meeting its obligations within the foreseeable future.” Records showed staff had spent more than what the organization had in the bank, along with instances of overdraft fees and missing receipts.
After contacting the city about the records, a spokesperson said last week that the chamber’s financial stability and ability to submit “accurate and complete” financial documentation contributed to the decision to end the contract.
Read the rest of the story at inewsource.org.
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