Downtown Los Angeles's Arts District is a haven for street art.

The senseless feud between two competing factions in downtown Los Angeles’s Arts District has ended in compromise with the establishment of a new Business Improvement District (BID) set to emerge in the next couple of months, according to city officials. 

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to approve Councilman Jose Huizar’s proposed concession between the Arts District Community Council Los Angles (ADCCLA) and the Arts District Los Angeles (ADLA), which would reinstate a new BID to ensure cleanliness and safety in the area. 

“There is no doubt that both sides care deeply about the success of the Arts District and ultimately their common interest in sustaining a vibrant BID and a clean and safe Arts District far outweighed any differences they might have had,” Huizar said during Tuesday’s City Council meeting. 

Although ADLA sees this vote as a win because the plan approved by City Council was ultimately their own, the board of directors will be expanded from 16 to 23, five of which will be members of the ADCCLA team, according to Dilip Bhavnani, a member of ADLA’s steering committee.

ADLA’s proposal process received city approval to distribute ballots to Arts District property owners before the ADCCLA team, a factor that Bhavnani feels attributed to the ultimate success of ADLA. 

“Our plan went through the petition phase in rapid time and then went through the ballot phase. We had the largest turn out of ballots and 80.8 percent were cast in favor of the ADLA plan. At that time, the ADCCLA plan had still not been approved by the city clerk,” Bhavnani said. 

READ ALSO: The Arts District Paints A Different Side Of Downtown L.A.

ADLA’s plan will move forward with the intention of providing more than 82 hours dedicated to security services every day of the year in combination with more than 22 hours worth of cleaning services every day of the year, according to the site’s website. 

Additionally, ADLA’s coverage will task 36 percent more land than ADCCLA’s intended proposal. Bhavnani also hopes to bring back bicycle safety patrols to the Arts District to increase safety. 

Despite the subsequent loss, members of the ADCCLA committee are not planning to challenge the instated proposal and are in full support of the compromise, according to Bhavnani. 

Representatives from the ADCCLA committee did not respond for comment. 

READ ALSO: It's Not Always About The 'Cool Factor' In The Arts District 

This compromise comes after a multi-month struggle between the two competing sides to reinstate the BID after a judge ordered a preexisting BID to dissolve in May 2013. The preceding BID violated state law by using taxpayer money to fund marketing operations that benefited the general public instead of just property owners. 

The approved BID hopes to rebuild the Arts District after the bitter stalemate between the two sides led to an increase in crime and a decrease in overall cleanliness. 

The Los Angeles Police Department cites an increase in crime during the months following the dissolution of the original BID, with a 31 percent increase in reported crimes and a nearly 170 percent increase in grand theft auto. 

Arts District patron Alex Roberts also saw an influx of issues that he felt came as a result of the BID’s initial discontinuation.

“I would walk outside of a restaurant and see all this graffiti and trash along the gutters. There was no one really assigned to clean it up and the whole progress of the Arts District really came to a halt,” Roberts said. 

READ ALSO: Arts District Transplant Is Leading Charge For Its Revitalization 

Roberts was initially in support of ADCCLA’s potential BID because of its emphasis on synthesizing the beautification process with the Arts District’s public spaces, but now he says as long as a BID is enacted soon, any change will be productive. 

The ADLA looks forward to the merger of the former rivals, eager to set aside differences for an increased sense of unity within the Arts District community. 

“With a situation like this, you don’t want perfect harmony. We always need different perspectives and as long as everyone remembers that they aren’t doing it for their personal ego but for the betterment for the community, it’s only going to help,” Bhavnani said. 

Reach Staff Reporter McKenna Aiello here, and follow her on Twitter @McKennaAiello.