Street Resurfacing Financing Working Group - DRAFT Recommendations

BOMA San Francisco Members:

The Street Resurfacing Financing Working Group was formed in January 2010 at the request of the Mayor and Board President David Chiu to prepare a specific set of proposals or recommendations to the Mayor, the Board of Supervisors, and the Capital Planning Committee for financing the repaving and/or reconstruction of the City's public streets and rights of way.  As you may recall, BOMA San Francisco members have heard about the issue of street resurfacing before in May 2009, and the cost associated to 'catch up' to maintain and possibly improve the Pavement Condition Index (PCI) score--70 is considered passing; San Francisco is currently at 63.

The City has underfunded its ability properly maintain the streets for two decades, possible more.  BOMA San Francisco members understand the need to maintain San Francisco's streets to promote efficient transpiration, commerce, safety and to reduce escalating costs in the future if the City does not act to maintain the streets now, but were will the money come from?

Please click here to review a DRAFT presentation on the report as of May 12, 2010.  The primary recommendations listed in the presentation (among 20 possible options) to raise the necessary funds are (pp. 28-31):

• A Conditional General Tax 
• Sales, payroll, utility, or a general parcel.
• A Citywide Benefit Assessment District 
• Requires nonresidents to contribute to the costs via a business pass-through
• A Parcel Tax 
• Based on the amount of vehicle trips their property generates 
• Issue bonds (Click here to review our May 2009 blog post on the   Road Repair and Safety Improvements Bond proposed by the City).  

We'd like to call your attention to page 32 of the presentation on what the City would need to charge property owners to meet the Working Group's recommended average yearly budget for a PCI of 70 (over 10 years)--for commercial property owners, the Group recommended a parcel tax levied at $0.174 per square foot based on the percentage of daily trips generated by the property:

Please take a moment to review the report and send your comments to Ken Cleaveland, BOMA San Francisco's Director of Government and Public Affairs at kenc@boma.com and John Bozeman, BOMA San Francisco's Legislative Assistant at johnb@boma.com with your comments.