MELROSEOn Tuesday, January 10, the Los Angeles City Council voted 10-0 to allocate $40,000 to partially fund street improvements, beautification, events, marketing and other efforts aimed at attracting more customers to the businesses along Melrose Avenue, Melrose Place and La Cienega Boulevard.

Having already spent money toward this end, property owners from the La Cienega Design Quarter Division proposed matching the $40,000 to fund the new business improvement district. It would be located along the aforementioned streets, extending from Beverly Boulevard to Melrose Avenue and from Melrose Place to Fairfax Avenue.

The plan is to increase declining sales and tax revenue by improving the overall experience of pedestrians who shop on these streets for art, antiques, furniture, fashion and fine dining. Additional programs associated with this plan have yet to be determined. Past efforts have included landlords lowering rent and businesses slashing prices.

Before the district can be formed, the $80,000 will be spent to hire a consultant to assess its feasibility, a management plan, an engineer’s report, petition and ballot drives, not to mention initial expenses. In the past, proposed districts did not form because the parties involved could not raise enough money, abandoned their expansion efforts, or a consultant deemed it infeasible. The $40,000 allocated by the city for the Melrose Avenue Business Improvement District came from such failed efforts for Woodland Hills, Sun Valley and the Wilshire Center.