Western SoMa businesses, property owners, and residents are combining efforts and passions to  improve our neighborhood’s safety, health, economic vitality, and aesthetics. Together, we are working to form a Community Benefit District called  SoMa West CBD.

SoMa West represents one of the most multicultural and multidisciplinary neighborhoods in San Francisco.  From its formation in 1847, our neighborhood was created to accommodate city pioneers, workers, manufacturing, and utilities.  Since then, we have also become home to a variety of community activists and civil rights advocates, community celebrations, artist groups and studios, technology leaders, entertainment and nightlife. Our location, space, and accessibility makes our neighborhood increasingly important to the San Francisco Bay Area. Improvements to our neighborhood will prove fundamental to sustaining our neighborhood’s well-being.

Forming a Community Benefit District from the ground up takes time and persistence.  We are encouraged by all of the support from everyone within the SoMa West CBD area - from property owners, to renters, workers, and business owners - small, larger, and everyone in between.  When drawing the boundaries for SoMa West CBD, we wanted to make sure to include the entire area so that we will all benefit from a safer, cleaner, more vibrant neighborhood.  With everyone working together to spread the word and share the vision of SoMa West, we'll finally have a solution to make this incrwedible neighborhood we can all feel proud of.  SoMa West CBD's goal is to make everyone's experience in SoMa West so much better.

Community Benefit Districts (CBDs) are public-private partnerships formed by property owners in a specific geographic area to improve quality of life, build community, and promote economic activity.       

CBDs provide supplemental services such as safety patrols, sidewalk cleaning, park maintenance, retail and restaurant recruitment, resident and business advocacy, and more to improve the basic level of services provided by the City (to supplement city services, NOT replace city services).  These services are funded by property owners who pay an annual assessment based on the size of one’s land, building or home, and other determining factors.      

Forming a CBD requires formulating an annual budget and a management plan, which will be implemented by a nonprofit organization.  The organization will be governed by a board of district property owners, businesses, renters, and other stakeholders.  

As a unified community we decide what services we want to address and how we allocate our resources, while having a significant voice with the City.

Property owners, residents, businesses and workers will all benefit from having a more vibrant, clean, and safe neighborhood.  Additionally, we will promote a sense of community and encourage businesses and shops to make this an incredible place to live, work, shop, and visit.

The SoMa West CBD will:

• Advance the quality of life and community cohesion for residents, businesses, workers, and visitors in the SoMa West neighborhood.   
• Foster a safer and more secure community.     
• Enhance environmental quality and beauty.    
• Reinforce the viability of our economic base while embracing the community that makes SoMa West so unique.  

As a unified body, SoMa West CBD can strengthen and advocate for the community both in the present and for our future as a unified body.

• Petition Phase:  We are currently in our petitioning phase and are close to passing our 30% threshold needed.  We are asking for Property Owners to sign our Petitions to be able to move us forward to our ballot phase.  We have already received signed petiitions back from every part of the community, and at this time have received signed YES petitions for 21% of the budget already, and have verbal support from owners for another 5%. For context, this signed population already represents a larger area than all of the property in a CBD for 9 of the 13 CBDs in San Francisco !
• Ballot Phase:  Once the petition phase is successful, we will send the official ballot to all property owners in SoMa West. The SoMa West CBD will form if property owners totaling over 50% of the proposed assessment vote in favor of the CBD.
• Services (2020-2035): If the SoMa West CBD is passed in the ballot phase, services will start as of January 2020

This is the beginning of our multiple-year planning process to form SoMa West CBD.   

Our goals are to listen, educate, and solicit neighborhood input, keeping the community clearly informed of each step throughout the process.   

Join us to learn more at one of the following meetings.  Below is a list of our Public Meetings dates and times with locations.  We chose various times, dates, places, and location types to hopefully offer something for everyone.

• Encourage property owners to be on the lookout for the SoMa West CBD Petition in their mailbox, check YES, sign/date and return it.  We will need to reach out to every property owner to sign the petition. 
• Spread the word  to property owners, residents,workers, and businesses within SoMa West.  Share with the news about the Petitions and SoMa West CBD through friends & neighbors, HOA's, on your block or within your building, others on your block and in your building.  
• Come to an info session.  Invite property owners, residents, and business owners to learn more at one of our public info sessions listed below to answer questions and provide additional information.