Read on to learn more about what this means for the Downtown Stockton Alliance.
THE PROCESS
Last year, the Downtown Stockton Alliance took on the process of initiating the renewal of our Improvement District. First voted into creation in 1997, the DSA has completed recertifications in 2002, 2007, and 2017.
This process had several steps.
First, the DSA Board of Directors met in early 2025 to decide whether or not any changes should be made to the District boundaries. They decided to aim for growing the district to the north and to the northwest, and to make some subtractions/additions to the southern boundary.
Once the boundaries were decided and our consultant created a Management Plan with proposed assessment calculations, DSA staff sent out mailers, made phone calls, and visited property owners in person to notify them of the intent to renew the existing district with the boundary alterations, and with a few additional changes:
- The Downtown Stockton Property Based Business Improvement District would be converted to a Downtown Stockton Community Improvement District (which would allow the renewal term to be 20 years, rather than the maximum of 10 allowed under the designation of a Property Based Business Improvement District).
- The district would all be converted to the Zone 1 level of service, meaning ALL properties would be receiving maintenance, hospitality, and marketing services in exchange for paying the same rates.
- Non-profit-owned properties would be charged at 50% of the normal rate.
- All building square footage would be assessed at the same rate, rather than the 1st floor being assessed at a higher rate than the upper floors.
In order to complete the first phase of the recertification, the DSA needed to collect signed petitions worth a weighted-dollar amount of over 30% of the total proposed district assessments. We passed this threshold on July 29th of 2025, at which point City Council was presented with signed weighted-dollar petitions representing over 50% of the district in favor. With the petitions exceeding the threshold, the recertification was placed on a ballot…