Supporting Southern Humboldt Strengthening Local Business
Connecting businesses, visitors, and our community to help Southern Humboldt thrive.
Empower Local Commerce
Drive Economic Growth
SoHumBID actively guides the formation of the Southern Humboldt Business Improvement District. We engage local businesses and stakeholders to build a resilient and vibrant community economy. Act now to strengthen your business’s future!
Announcement of Petition Process Below
Announcement of Petition Process Below
Announcement of Petition Process Below
Announcement of Petition Process Below
Announcement of Petition Process Below
Announcement of Petition Process Below
Petition Process announcement
The Southern Humboldt Business Improvement District Steering Committee has received County Of Humboldt confirmation that we exceeded the 51% petition threshold by the October 1, 2026 deadline. The petition process is now closed. Next steps are in the hands of the County of Humboldt.
Welcome to the free informational website for the proposed SHBID
This website is for information purposes only. Any reference to any references of statutes, codes, regulations, and, legal requirements are provided for general informational purposes only.
Information on this website represents the steering committee's current understanding, but has not been reviewed or approved by County Counsel, should not be considered legal advice, and may be subject to further interpretation or correction.
The management plan has been made available to the community for review. Any interpretation of its provisions is the reader’s own and should not be considered a legal interpretation or opinion provided by the steering committee.
A link to the Management Plan is listed in the link below in the following section on this website.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please reach us at info.so.hum.bid@gmail.com if you cannot find an answer to your question.
Link to Southern Humboldt Business Management Plan:
https://humboldt.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=15332736&GUID=9AFB728D-D8A8-4B87-B382-399E6439608D
SHBID Management District Plan (Humboldt County, 3-24-26)
A Business Improvement District (BID) is a defined area where businesses work together to fund improvements, services and economic development efforts that benefit the local economy and community.
The goal is simple:
Keep local investment local.
Funds generated within the district would be reinvested back into Southern Humboldt and may support:
- Beautification and community improvements
- Marketing and promotion
- Economic development
- Grant writing
- Visitor information
- Events
- Wayfinding and signage
- Infrastructure advocacy
- Business support
- Other projects benefiting Southern Humboldt
Importantly, establishing the district also creates a formal, place-based Southern Humboldt organization capable of pursuing state, federal and other outside funding opportunities.
The proposal grew from years of discussions among local businesses, stakeholders and community members about Southern Humboldt's long-term economic challenges.
Those concerns have included business closures, economic decline, aging infrastructure, beautification needs, limited funding opportunities and the need for greater direct investment into Southern Humboldt.
The fundamental question became:
How do we create a sustainable mechanism for investment directly back into Southern Humboldt?
Humboldt County funded a feasibility process and engaged Civitas, a professional district-formation consulting group, to determine whether a district structure could be feasible for Southern Humboldt.
A volunteer Steering Committee subsequently formed to continue guiding the formation process.
The proposed Southern Humboldt Business Improvement District has gone through an extensive public process, with opportunities for businesses and community members to provide input, ask questions and raise concerns.
We are now in the final petition and outreach phase.
Signed petitions must be submitted to the County of Humboldt by October 1, 2026.
Because of where we are in the formal process, there is no longer the ability, or funding to completely redesign the proposal and begin again. However, the Steering Committee continues to listen and make adjustments where they are still possible.
Reaching the required 51% threshold during the petition process does not automatically form the Business Improvement District.
It allows the proposal to advance to the next stage of the formal formation process.
Additional required public processes must still take place before the district can officially be formed. These include consideration by the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors and additional opportunities for public participation as required through the formal district-formation process.
The petition is an important step, but it is not the final step.
If the required petition threshold is reached, the proposal advances through the remaining public process before a final decision regarding formation is made.
No.
The proposed 0.75% assessment is structured so that it can be passed through to the consumer at the point of sale.
It is legally classified as an assessment, rather than a general tax. The business facilitates collection of the assessment.
A business may choose to absorb the assessment rather than pass it through, but the structure allows it to be passed through to the consumer.
The revenue figures contained in the Management District Plan are projections.
The Steering Committee recognizes the economic realities currently facing Southern Humboldt. Businesses have closed, economic conditions have changed, and actual revenues generated by the assessment could be substantially lower than earlier projections.
While locally generated assessment revenue is important, the opportunity created through formation of the district extends beyond that revenue.
Establishing the district creates an organizational platform for Southern Humboldt capable of pursuing state, federal, grant and other outside funding opportunities.
Southern Humboldt has not previously had a district of this kind specifically positioned to pursue these opportunities on behalf of our region.
For the Steering Committee, establishing that platform is an important part of the long-term opportunity.
The Management District Plan establishes the overall framework for the proposed district.
It addresses foundational elements such as:
- District boundaries
- Purpose and authorized activities
- Assessment structure
- General governance
- How district funds may be used
The Management District Plan is not intended to contain every operational detail of how the future organization will function.
Many of those particulars would be addressed through the district's bylaws.
Bylaws are the more detailed operating and governance rules for an organization.
They can address matters such as:
- Board procedures and responsibilities
- Voting procedures
- Officer roles and terms
- Financial oversight
- Conflict-of-interest policies
- Committees and advisory structures
- Meeting and governance procedures
- Other operational requirements
The Management District Plan establishes the authorized framework for the district. The bylaws provide greater detail about how the organization operates within that framework.
The bylaws would be developed following formation of the district.
This provides an important opportunity to consider community input regarding many of the district's more specific operational and governance details.
If the district is successfully formed, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors would formalize the proposed district's Board of Directors.
An advisory structure can also be developed to ensure that perspectives from throughout Southern Humboldt continue to be represented.
Representation could include people from areas such as:
- Small and large businesses
- Lodging and hospitality
- Restaurants and retail
- Arts, culture and events
- Nonprofit and community organizations
- Healthcare and community services
- Tourism and recreation
- Agriculture and other locally based industries
- Communities throughout the district
- Other community stakeholders
The goal is to build a structure that is representative of Southern Humboldt, rather than one driven by a single organization, industry or interest.
No.
Formation establishes the district and its foundational framework. It does not end community participation.
Many operational details can continue to be developed through the bylaws, Board of Directors, advisory participation and future public processes.
At this stage, the Steering Committee is working within the formal process, available resources and October 1 deadline while continuing to listen to businesses and the community.
Where adjustments can still responsibly and legally be made, we are working to make them.
Where concerns involve future operations and governance, those conversations can continue as the bylaws and organizational structure are developed.
The proposed Southern Humboldt Business Improvement District will be governed through a 501(c)(6) nonprofit business organization established to administer the district in accordance with the approved Management District Plan, bylaws and applicable requirements.
Because the organization would administer a district funded through an assessment, it would operate with public accountability and oversight requirements that go beyond those of a typical private nonprofit business organization.
This includes compliance with applicable requirements of California's Ralph M. Brown Act, which governs open meetings of local public bodies. Board meetings and decision-making regarding district business would therefore be subject to applicable public-meeting, notice, agenda and participation requirements.
The organization would also be responsible for appropriate financial oversight, reporting and accountability for the use of assessment funds. Assessment revenues could only be used in accordance with the purposes and activities authorized for the district.
In other words, while the administrative organization would be structured as a 501(c)(6), the district would not simply operate like a private organization behind closed doors. Its administration of assessment funds brings with it public-accountability requirements intended to provide transparency and public access to the district's decision-making process.
The organization would provide the structure for managing district programs and funds, pursuing outside funding opportunities, and carrying out projects and services benefiting Southern Humboldt.
The goal is to create a locally focused organization with financial oversight, public accountability, community participation and representation from the businesses and communities it serves.
The Management District Plan establishes how funds generated through the district may be used.
District assessment revenue is intended for the district and does not simply become unrestricted County General Fund revenue.
The purpose is to invest those resources into projects, services and economic-development efforts benefiting Southern Humboldt.
In simple terms:
What is generated here is invested here.
The Steering Committee did not create the underlying business list.
The list was developed using tax and sales-tax records, and the Steering Committee does not have unilateral authority to alter those records.
Southern Humboldt's business landscape has changed considerably, and some businesses included in earlier data may no longer be operating.
This is another reason actual assessment revenue may be lower than projections contained in earlier planning documents.
The Steering Committee currently has no dedicated funding for a website, staff or administrative support.
The Steering Committee is entirely volunteer-based. Its members are contributing their time to the formation process while also managing their own businesses, jobs and community responsibilities.
The Committee's available resources are therefore focused on the petition process, business outreach, education and meeting the October 1 deadline.
*The steering committee decided recently that a website would be a a good resource to house information such as this.Therefore, the steering committee has taken additional time to produce the website
Because formation of the district and operation of the future district are two different stages.
The Steering Committee's current responsibility is to guide the formation process.
If the district is formed, its Board of Directors, bylaws, advisory structure and operating procedures would provide greater specificity regarding how the organization functions.
The immediate goal is to establish the platform.
From there, Southern Humboldt can continue shaping how that platform works for our businesses, our communities and the long-term economic vitality of our region.
- Humboldt County / unincorporated areas: 8.75%
- Ferndale: 9.50%
- Fortuna: 9.50%
- Rio Dell: 9.50%
- Trinidad: 9.50%
- Blue Lake: 9.75%
- Arcata: 10.25%
- Eureka: 10.25%
Fortuna has placed Measure D on the November 3 ballot, seeking an additional 0.75%. If approved, Fortuna's rate would increase from 9.50% to 10.25%.
For comparison, unincorporated Humboldt County is currently at 8.75%. With our proposed 0.75% BID assessment, the comparable percentage would be an additional POS .75% line item added on the receipt, totaling 9.50%.
That means Southern Humboldt would still be below Blue Lake at 9.75%, below Arcata and Eureka at 10.25%, and, if Fortuna's Measure D passes, 0.75% below Fortuna as well.
Rather than being tied with Fortuna at 9.50%, Fortuna would move to 10.25%, leaving Southern Humboldt at 9.50% and still among the lowest overall rates in Humboldt County.
Why Sign the Petition?
Southern Humboldt Business Improvement District · Proposed
What is being proposed, what it would cost, and who decides
This page explains the proposed Southern Humboldt Business Improvement District in plain terms: what the assessment is, what it is calculated on, what the money can and cannot be spent on, what protections exist in state law, and what is still unsettled. It is written for the business owners who would pay it, because they are the people who decide whether it exists.
Who wrote this, and what it is not
The SHBID Steering Committee is a group of local business owners and volunteers. We are not attorneys, accountants or tax advisers, and nothing on this page is legal or tax advice.
What follows is our best understanding of the Management District Plan and of the state law that governs districts like this one. We name our sources so you can check us, and where something is genuinely unsettled we say so rather than filling the gap with a guess.
On anything that affects your own business — how the assessment would fall on your revenue, what it means for your taxes, what your rights are — rely on your own adviser, and on County Counsel for questions about County process. Not on us.
Section OneThe problem this is meant to solve
Garberville, Redway and Benbow are unincorporated. That is not a technicality — it is the whole reason this proposal exists, so it is worth stating carefully.
An incorporated town has a city council, a city general fund, a public works department, and a budget line for the streetscape. Somebody is responsible for the banners, the sidewalk lighting, the directional signs and the gateway that tells a traveler they have arrived somewhere. When a business opens on a main street in an incorporated town, it inherits that public partner without having to arrange it.
Here there is no such partner, and there is no mechanism to create one. The County of Humboldt administers an enormous rural area. It has never had a dedicated funding mechanism for downtown wayfinding, banners, facades or gateway signage in unincorporated territory, because outside an assessment district no such mechanism exists in California law. This is not a failure of will at the County. It is the absence of a tool.
The second half of the problem is that there is no recurring local revenue. Volunteer boards and one-off fundraisers can pay for a single project. They cannot commit to a multi-year program, and multi-year commitment is precisely what capital work, maintenance obligations and grant applications require. A sign that nobody is funded to maintain is a sign that looks bad in four years.
A business improvement district is the only mechanism California law makes available to communities in our position. That is the honest reason this is on the table — not that it is the ideal instrument, but that it is the only one there is.
Section TwoWhat the assessment is, and what it is calculated on
The proposed SHBID assessment is 0.75% of assessable sales. For example, on a $100 assessable sale, the assessment itself would be 75 cents. Any applicable sales tax is calculated separately in accordance with state law.
Outside the assessment base
- Wholesale, business-to-business and sale-for-resale transactions. These are not direct-to-consumer sales.
- Contractor and service labor, which is generally not taxable in California. A service business is therefore assessed on very little of what it actually earns.
- Rents, lease income and professional service fees. A landlord is not an assessed business by virtue of owning a building; the businesses operating inside it are.
- Residentially zoned and agricultural property, which the Management District Plan expressly exempts.
Inside the assessment base
- Retail sales to the public — the counter, the shelf, the till.
- Food and beverage sold to customers, and lodging sold to guests.
- Gasoline and diesel at the pump. Pump fuel is subject to sales tax, so fuel sales sit inside the base. At 0.75%, that is roughly 45 cents on a $60 tank.
- Propane in the specific circumstances described below, which are narrower than they are often assumed to be.
Propane, stated precisely
Household propane raises a fair cost-of-living question, and here is the exact scope.
Under Revenue and Taxation Code section 6353(b), a propane sale is exempt from sales tax — and therefore outside this assessment — when four conditions are all met: the propane is delivered by the seller; it is delivered into a tank with a capacity of 30 gallons or more; the tank serves a qualified residence that is not served by gas mains or pipes; and the purchaser has a completed CDTFA-230-N exemption certificate on file with the seller. Qualifying agricultural propane is likewise exempt.
Propane that does not meet those conditions is taxable, and is therefore assessed. That includes cylinder swaps, counter fills into containers under 30 gallons, and propane sold for commercial use.
Those four conditions are the exact scope of the exemption; no broader exemption is claimed. Any business selling propane should confirm the treatment of its own product lines with the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.
Section ThreeThe rate, and who has the authority to set it
The rate is the term most often misunderstood, so it is set out exactly here.
Assessed businesses asked the Steering Committee to commit to the rate. As of August 27, 2026, the Steering Committee has agreed that it will ask the Board of Supervisors, on behalf of this community, to hold the rate at 0.75% for all five years of the term, with no increase.
The limit of that request matters just as much. The Steering Committee cannot guarantee that outcome, because the rate is not the committee's to set. Under the Property and Business Improvement District Law, the Board of Supervisors sets the assessment at formation. The committee's request will be made on the record, in public, to the Board of Supervisors. It is a request from this community to its Board, and it is nothing more than that. The request is recorded in the Committee's minutes; the decision is the Board's alone.
One thing the statute does settle, and it is worth knowing. Under Streets and Highways Code section 36624, when it acts on the proposed assessment the Board may adopt, revise, reduce or modify it — but proposed assessments “may only be revised by reducing any or all of them.” The Board cannot raise the rate above 0.75% at formation. It can hold it there, reduce it, or decline to form the district at all.
Section FourWhere the money goes, and why it cannot leave
The first-year budget proposed in the Management District Plan is $548,578.55, allocated as follows.
ProgramShareFirst yearWhat it pays forDestination Development75%$411,433.91Pole banners, streetlight adornments, directional and gateway signage, landscape and facade improvement, and public space improvement.Economic Enhancement & Marketing15%$82,286.78Promoting the district as a place to visit, shop and do business, and supporting events that bring people onto the corridor.Administration & Advocacy5%$27,428.93The cost of running the district: bookkeeping, required annual reporting, insurance, and representation before the County.Contingency5%$27,428.93Held against collection shortfalls and unforeseen cost. Unspent contingency stays inside the district.
These are the amounts proposed in the plan, and they assume the full assessment base participates. First-year revenue will more than likely come in lower than that, and the budget would be revised accordingly — the percentage split holds and the dollar figures follow whatever is actually collected. The plan projects annual revenue in a range of roughly $260,000 to $782,000, so $548,578.55 is the proposed figure rather than a forecast.
Why an assessment dollar behaves differently from a tax dollar
This is the distinction most worth understanding, and it is set out step by step below.
A sales tax dollar goes into a general fund. A general fund is, by design, a single pool that every obligation a jurisdiction has draws against — public safety, pensions, deferred maintenance, debt service, litigation. The dollar is not attached to the street it was collected on, and in any year of fiscal pressure it will be spent wherever the pressure is greatest. That is not a criticism of general funds; it is what they are for.
An assessment dollar cannot behave that way. Streets and Highways Code section 36625 restricts assessment revenue to the district that levied it and to the purposes named at formation. It cannot be transferred to another part of the county, redirected to an unrelated purpose, or swept in a difficult budget year. There is one exception, written into the same section: marketing or signage placed outside the district in order to point people into it is allowed. And under section 36650, after the first year the district files a report with the County each year — what it plans to do, what it will cost, and what money is carried over. The Board can approve that report or change it.
So the money raised in Garberville, Redway and Benbow is spent in Garberville, Redway and Benbow, on the things listed in the table above, and the accounting for it is filed publicly every year. That restriction is written into the statute.
Section FiveHow the cost compares to the rest of the county
One caveat has to come first, because it changes how the figure below should be read.
The assessment is an additional line item at the point of sale on taxable items. It is not a sales tax and it is not collected by the state, but a shopper does see it on the receipt. The comparison that follows reflects that, and it also accounts for a fact the plan discloses: the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration has issued a written opinion that state sales tax applies to revenue generated from a BID assessment on items where sales tax is levied.
JurisdictionCurrent combined sales tax rateUnincorporated Humboldt County, including Garberville, Redway and Benbow8.75%Ferndale, Fortuna, Rio Dell, Trinidad9.50%Blue Lake9.75%Arcata, Eureka10.25%
With the 0.75% assessment appearing as a line item on taxable sales, and including sales tax on the assessment itself, the comparable figure for Southern Humboldt lands slightly over 9.50%.
Southern Humboldt would sit roughly level with Ferndale, Fortuna, Rio Dell and Trinidad, and below Blue Lake, Arcata and Eureka. It would be among the lower rates in the county. Fortuna's Measure D, before its voters on November 3, proposes an additional 0.75%, which would take Fortuna to 10.25%.
Section SixWhat is already here, and what year one delivers
The visitors are already arriving
None of this depends on inventing a reason for people to come to Southern Humboldt. Three significant recreation assets are already built, and the people using them already pass these businesses.
- King Range — Paradise Royale and Tolkan Bike Park. Roughly 25 miles of BLM-built trail in the King Range National Conservation Area, including a terrain park with lines from beginner through black diamond. Class-one e-bikes are permitted. Riders coming for a weekend drive through Garberville and Redway to reach it, and drive back out through them.
- The Lost Coast Trail. 24.6 miles from the Mattole to Black Sands Beach, along the longest undeveloped coastline in California. Permits are required year-round through Recreation.gov, so every party arrives on a planned date — and has to resupply somewhere before it walks in.
- Southern Humboldt Community Park. Three purpose-built mountain-bike trails across a 430-acre preserve, minutes from the corridor. The park's own directions route travelers off Highway 101 and through Garberville to reach it.
- Shelter Cove, 22 miles out. Around 693 residents, roughly 93 active vacation rentals, one general store and one gas station. Almost everyone staying out there buys groceries, fuel and supplies on this corridor on the way through.
The demand already arrives. What does not exist is anybody funded to sign it, map it, or maintain the access to it. That is the gap this district is aimed at, and it is why the first item in the budget is signage rather than advertising.
What this does from day one
Not the five-year picture — what a funded district can start on in its first year, without waiting for a grant, a partner, or anybody else's decision.
- Directional and gateway signage. The corridor gets signed: gateway signage at the approaches, and directional signage naming what is up the side streets and how to reach the trailheads. This is the first item in the Destination Development line, and it is procurement rather than construction — it moves in months.
- Banners, lighting and frontage. Pole banners and streetlight adornments on the corridor, and a funded line for facade and landscape improvement.
- Maps, listings and upkeep. A visitor-facing map of trail access and open businesses, published where visitors actually look. A part-time trail steward and digital coordinator — keeping existing trails clean, signed, mapped and discoverable — has been costed at roughly $5,390 a year, which is affordable in year one at any point in the plan's revenue range.
- An organization that can hold a match line. From day one there is a body with a bank account, a five-year horizon and a public reporting duty. That is what a grant application needs on the match line and what the County needs on the other end of a partnership. Neither has existed here before.
Section SevenWhat the money can build, and what grants can unlock
The district can fund and build work directly. Signage, banners, streetlight adornments, facade and landscape improvement and public space improvement are named in the plan and are paid for out of the Destination Development line. That is the primary purpose and it does not depend on anything else happening.
There is a second effect that is less obvious and, over five years, may matter more. It concerns grants, and it is worth setting out exactly what a funded district changes and what it does not.
Eligibility is not the barrier
A district makes nobody newly eligible for grant funding. Nonprofits are already eligible applicants for the programs that matter here: State Parks' Recreational Trails Program lists nonprofits and public agencies alike, and so does the State Coastal Conservancy's trails and greenways program. A 501(c)(3) can apply today.
The real barriers are structural
The obstacles here are not about eligibility status. There are three of them, and a funded district addresses all three.
First, the match. Most competitive programs require the applicant to bring a share of the project cost. Without a recurring revenue source there is no money to put on the match line, and an application with a blank match line is not competitive.
Second, the maintenance commitment. Funders increasingly require the applicant to demonstrate it can maintain what it builds for years after the grant closes. A volunteer board cannot credibly make a ten-year maintenance commitment. An assessment base can.
Third, some of the largest programs restrict the lead applicant to a public body. The Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership and Caltrans' Clean California local grant program are examples; nonprofits may participate as sub-applicants but cannot lead. Without a local public partner, the community depends entirely on the County choosing to lead an application on its behalf.
What a funded district supplies is the three things that are missing: revenue that can fund a match, an assessment base that can credibly promise long-term maintenance, and an organized body that can partner with the County or apply alongside it.
What the match line is worth in practice
$411,433.91
Destination Development budget in year one. The plan expressly includes identifying and pursuing grant opportunities as part of this program.
Match requirements vary from program to program, so we are not going to quote a single number as though it applied everywhere. What matters is the arithmetic, and the arithmetic is not complicated. A match requirement expressed as a percentage tells you exactly how far a local commitment reaches:
- At a 10% match requirement, a $50,000 commitment from the district supports a $500,000 project. That commitment is roughly an eighth of a single year's Destination Development budget.
- At a 20% match requirement, that same $50,000 supports a $250,000 project. The ratio is less generous, but it is still a five-figure local commitment producing a six-figure result.
- And in either case, more than $360,000 of the year-one Destination Development budget is still available for signage, banners and facades.
Those are illustrations of the arithmetic, not forecasts of particular projects — no project has been selected. The relevant fact is narrower: no organization in Southern Humboldt can currently produce a match line of any size. That is the specific, mechanical reason applications get started here and then stop.
Section EightThe accountability the district would operate under
The district would be administered by a nonprofit Owners' Association, designated in the plan and under contract to the County, and it would be bound by the Ralph M. Brown Act and the California Public Records Act. Those are not internal policies that a board can amend. They are statutes with consequences, and the consequences are the reason they work.
- Meetings must be noticed and open. Agendas posted in advance; no action on business the public was not told about.
- Records must be produced on request under the Public Records Act, on a statutory timeline.
- Decisions taken in violation can be undone. Under Government Code section 54960.1, after a written demand to fix it, a court can void an action taken in violation of the Brown Act. Not everything can be undone — the statute protects some actions, including a contract somebody has already relied on in good faith.
- The district can be made to pay the other side's lawyer. Under Government Code section 54960.5, a court may award costs and attorney fees to whoever brought the case. The agency pays them, not the individual director — so a violation comes out of district money that would otherwise buy signage.
- The plan sets out further safeguards — including limits on how the assessment may be levied and what happens to unspent revenue. The plan is the governing document on those points and should be read directly.
The honest caveat: none of these safeguards runs itself. They require a board that posts agendas, keeps minutes and files reports on time. And who sits on that board is genuinely unsettled. The Board of Supervisors designates the nonprofit that administers the district; how that nonprofit picks its directors is set by bylaws nobody has written yet.
Section NineWhat is genuinely open to criticism
Four things about this proposal are genuinely open to criticism. They are set out here because anyone reviewing the plan will find them.
The base falls unevenly between retail and service businesses
A retail shop is assessed on nearly all of its revenue. A service business is assessed on very little of its own, because service labor is generally not taxable. Two businesses of the same size can therefore pay very different amounts. That is how this plan is written, and it is the plan on the table. It is not something the Steering Committee can rewrite now: the plan before the Board is the plan the petitions were signed under, and it stays that way. The point at which the base could be revisited is when the district comes up for renewal at the end of the five-year term, subject to the applicable County process and requirements at that time.
We could not find a close California analogue
We looked for a comparable district — an all-business, revenue-based assessment spanning multiple unincorporated communities — and did not find one that closely matches. Most business-based districts sit in incorporated towns and assess by business type and employee count rather than as a percentage of sales. If you know of a closer analogue, we would like the reference.
A customer sees the assessment on the receipt
The assessment is an additional line item at the point of sale on taxable items. The plan also discloses that the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration has issued a written opinion that state sales tax applies to revenue generated from BID assessments on items where sales tax is levied, and that businesses collecting the assessment are advised to collect sales tax on it. Anyone modeling the cost has to account for both.
The rules do not exist yet
There are no adopted bylaws, no seated board and no conflict-of-interest policy yet, because those are written after formation. Who governs is not in doubt — the assessed businesses do, through the Owners' Association. What is not settled is the detail of how their board is structured, and nobody should represent signing a petition as a decision on that detail.
Section TenThe decision, and the deadline
Formation requires signatures from business owners who would pay 51% of the proposed assessments. The deadline is October 1, 2026.
This is a decision made by the businesses who would pay it, not by anybody else.
October 1 is a petition deadline, not the last word. After it, the proposal goes through further public processes before the Board of Supervisors, and the community will have opportunities to take part in them. We are describing that generally on purpose: the County sets its own process, and we are not going to describe it in more detail than we actually understand. This is our best knowledge of it.
What we are asking
- Read the Management District Plan. It is the actual document; this page is a summary of it and the plan governs.
- Work out your own number. Take your annual assessable sales, multiply by 0.0075, and decide against that figure rather than against a general impression.
- Ask us the hard question directly. If there is something in here you think is wrong, we would rather hear it from you now.
- If you support it, sign the petition before October 1, 2026.
Figures from the Southern Humboldt Business Improvement District Management District Plan dated March 19, 2025. Statutory references are to the California Streets and Highways Code, Government Code and Revenue and Taxation Code as noted. Sales tax rates are current combined rates as published by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.
Prepared by the SHBID Steering Committee — a volunteer group of local business owners. Not attorneys, accountants or tax advisers. This page is informational and is not legal or tax advice; please consult your own adviser about how the assessment would apply to your revenue.
Questions to any member of the Steering Committee:
laura@shbvb.org · wedigit@mateel.org · runthings@gmail.com · damond@mateel.org
trent764@gmail.com · talktorio@gmail.com · cjordan@wavecable.com
swami@myhumboldtabode.com · enoch@revenueoperator.ai
The Management District Plan is on file with the County and is the governing document. This page is a summary of it.
Steering Committee Members
Rio Anderson
Samantha Montoya Wilson
Laura Lasseter
Owner - Chautauqua Natural Foods
Laura Lasseter
Samantha Montoya Wilson
Laura Lasseter
Director of Operations - SHBVB
Samantha Montoya Wilson
Samantha Montoya Wilson
Samantha Montoya Wilson
Founder - My Humboldt Abode
Trent Sanders
Shanon Taliaferro
Eryn Snodgrass
Local Business Owner
Eryn Snodgrass
Shanon Taliaferro
Eryn Snodgrass
Owner - Brass Rail Bar & Grill
Shanon Taliaferro
Shanon Taliaferro
Shanon Taliaferro
Local Business Owner
Enoch Tatton
Carolyn Jordan
Carolyn Jordan
Local Business Owner
Carolyn Jordan
Carolyn Jordan
Carolyn Jordan
Retired Business Owner
Damond Edwards
Carolyn Jordan
Damond Edwards
Founder - SoHum Youth Sports Assoc.
Accessibility statement
The proposed Southern Humboldt Business Improvement District (SoHum BID) is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for people of all abilities. We are continually improving the user experience for everyone and applying the relevant accessibility standards to make our website usable by the widest possible audience, including people with disabilities.
Our commitment
We aim for this website to conform to Level AA of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities and more user-friendly for everyone.
Measures we take to support accessibility
SoHum BID takes the following measures to ensure accessibility:
- Including accessibility as part of our mission and values
- Assigning clear accessibility goals and responsibilities
- Employing formatting and design practices that support screen readers and other assistive technologies
- Providing alternative text for meaningful images
- Using sufficient color contrast between text and background
- Structuring pages with clear headings and consistent navigation
- Reviewing new content and features for accessibility before publishing
Conformance status
We believe this website is largely conformant with WCAG 2.1 Level AA. "Largely conformant" means that some parts of the content may not fully conform to the accessibility standard, and we are actively working to address these areas.
Feedback
We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of the SoHum BID website. If you encounter an accessibility barrier, or if any content or feature is not accessible to you, please let us know:
- Email: info.so.hum.bid@gmail.com
Please include the specific web page, a description of the issue, and the browser or assistive technology you were using, if possible. We try to respond to accessibility feedback within 5 business days.
Compatibility with browsers and assistive technology
This website is designed to be compatible with:
- Recent versions of major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge
- Screen readers such as JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver
- Browser zoom and text-resizing tools up to 200% without loss of content or functionality
Content is not guaranteed to be accessible with outdated browser versions or unsupported assistive technology.
Known limitations
Despite our best efforts, some content on this site may not yet be fully accessible. Known limitations may include:
- PDF documents or scanned files that have not yet been made fully accessible
- Third-party content, maps, or embedded tools that are outside our direct control
- Older archived content published before this accessibility statement was adopted
We are actively working to identify and remediate these issues. If you experience difficulty accessing any content, please contact us using the information above and we will provide the information in an alternative format in a reasonable timeframe.
Formal complaints
If you are not satisfied with our response to your accessibility feedback, you may file a complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing or the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division.
Technical specifications
Accessibility of the SoHum BID website relies on the following technologies to work with the particular combination of web browser and any assistive technologies or plugins installed on your computer:
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript
These technologies are relied upon for conformance with the accessibility standards used.
Assessment approach
SoHum BID assesses the accessibility of this website through the following approaches:
- Self-evaluation
- Automated accessibility scanning tools
- Periodic manual review
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