City Council states intent to stop general fund subsidies for deficit landscape zones if vote is scheduled under Proposition 218 regulations

Among the critical issues facing Yorba Linda are a few associated with the Landscape Maintenance Assessment District, including expensive water use, aging infrastructure and an increasing reliance on the city's general fund to cover deficits in several special benefit zones.

Two actions regarding the district were taken at a recent City Council meeting – one routine       on a 5-0 vote and one with far-reaching implications on a 4-1 vote (Craig Young dissenting).

The routine vote initiated the process to levy 2015-16 assessments for 43 benefit zones: 29 for local landscaping, nine for arterial (major street) landscaping, three for traffic signals, one for arterial street lighting and one for local street lighting, all to be collected with property taxes.

Assessments on single-family homes this fiscal year ranged from $45.70 to $473.50 for local landscaping for about half of the city's parcels, plus $52.21 for arterial landscaping, $1.38 for arterial lighting, $17.85 for local lighting on most parcels and $3.13 to $7.62 for traffic signals.

The second vote stated an intent to stop general fund subsidies for zones with expenses exceeding revenue from assessments and the city's “general benefit” contribution, if a vote on increasing assessments is scheduled.

Added general fund contributions were required in 11 of the 33 zones in existence in the 2013-14 fiscal year, according to a report by Mike Wolfe, director of public works.

“One of the potential solutions to these deficit zones would be a successful Proposition 218 vote,” Wolfe stated, noting “a general concern” that without “negative consequences” for a failed vote, “there is no incentive for residents to vote to increase their own assessments.”

Approved by state voters in 1996, the proposition requires a majority of property owners to approve assessments local governments have been using to boost revenue after Proposition 13 limited property taxes in 1978.

A mail ballot of the city's property owners in 1997 resulted in 83 percent approval for the district's assessment rates, plus an annual consumer price index adjustment, but a modest arterial landscape hike drew a 75 percent “no” vote in 2008.

The district maintains more than 580 acres of irrigated landscaped area, according to a November 2014 report from Wolfe. He noted the major increase in expenses has been for water, which totals, on average the past six years, some 550,000 billing units (411.4 million gallons).

Water costs have added $500,000 to expenses since 2008-09, due mainly to a palette of high-water use landscaping installed 20 to 30 years ago, Wolfe noted, also pointing to irrigation systems “outdated and inefficient compared to systems today.”

And changing to a drought-tolerant palette would add capital costs for plants and a “significantly different” irrigation system “often times higher in life-cycle maintenance costs.”