Downtown Stockton Recertification: Approved for Another 20 Years!

Categorized Under: Downtown Development , Downtown Properties , DSA Corner

By: Courtney Wood

On February 3rd, the Downtown Stockton Alliance Community Improvement District was approved for a 20-year term.

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.  

New Downtown Stockton District Map

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.

All property owners within the proposed boundary were sent a ballot to vote “yes” or “no” regarding the issue. A hearing was scheduled for October 14th, 2025; at this meeting, city staff counted the ballots, which revealed 75.6% of returned weighted-dollar votes in favor of the district. Despite meeting the threshold of returned votes in favor (greater than 50%), City Council voted not to approve the district at that time due to speaker voices primarily from the expansion area of the district.

On December 9th, 2025, the mayor brought up that she would like to revisit the issue at a future meeting based upon new information, and noted that she would be proposing to approve the district but without the expansion areas.

A new hearing notice was issued to all property owners within the proposed district and a second hearing took place on February 3rd, 2026. At this meeting, Stockton City Council voted – 4 to 3 – to approve the Downtown Stockton Community Improvement District for 20 years, starting on January 1st, 2027, without the proposed expansions to the north and northwest.

District Services

The approval of the district recertification means that the Downtown Stockton Alliance will be providing the following services:

  • weed abatement
  • trash can emptying
  • litter removal
  • human waste removal
  • pressure washing
  • community ambassador services
  • economic development support
  • marketing support

to all areas within the new district map for the next 20 years!

Now that the rigorous process is complete, the DSA is excited for a bright future of service for Downtown Stockton! In the words of DSA Executive Director, Mike Huber, “This was a long and expensive process that I’m glad is behind us. The DSA staff did an amazing job throughout and I am proud of everyone that helped push this over the goal line. Thank you to our Board members and to the Downtown Stakeholders for all their support.”