One of
Yorba Linda's more controversial issues – who should pay for what
in the Landscape Maintenance Assessment District – continues to
draw protests, with many residents challenging the annual fees levied
on property owners for “special” landscaping benefits.
But –
again this year – the City Council overruled all protests regarding
the assessments and forwarded a list of payments due from city
property owners for nine arterial (major street) and 46 local
landscape zones to the county for collection with 2015-16 property
taxes.
The list
sent to the county also included fees for three traffic signal zones,
a citywide arterial street lighting zone and a non-contiguous local
street lighting zone. All together, the fees will total $5.7 million,
plus a $1.1 million “general benefit” contribution paid from city
funds.
However,
despite a 1.3 percent consumer price index increase from the prior
year, the $6.8 million total is still short of the some $9 million in
expected expenditures for 2015-16, so the shortfall subsidy also will
come from the city's general fund.
Many of
the protests concern one or more of the local landscaping zones,
which now total 46, up from 12 four years ago, although the zones
cover the same area. And some residents say the city should not
maintain landscaping with no public benefit and on private property
with no easements.
“Special”
benefits are defined as “aesthetic benefits to the properties
within each respective zone and a more pleasant environment to walk,
drive, live and work,” noted the latest report from a city-hired
consultant that handles many of the landscape district's legal
requirements.
“General”
benefits are described as “limited tree management, weed abatement,
rodent control and erosion control services for the various landscape
easement areas,” with a $752 per acre cost for flat or moderately
sloped areas and $1,073 per acre for slope landscaping.
The
city-paid “baseline servicing, unlike the enhanced aesthetic
services funded through the district assessments, would provide
benefits to the general public and to the properties both within and
outside of the specific benefit zones,” according to the
consultant.
Of the
city's total 21,142 single-family homes and 1,083 multi-family units,
11,091 and 524, respectively, are within the 46 local landscape
zones; single-family owners pay from $46.30 to $479.65 for “special”
benefits, depending on the zone.
All
properties are in one of the nine arterial landscape zones
(single-family owners pay from $43.87 to $52.89). All are in the
arterial street lighting zone (single-family: $1.40), and most are in
the local lighting zone (single-family: $18.08) and one of the three
traffic signal zones (most single-family: $6.26).
Fees for
multi-family units are 20 percent less and vary for mobile homes and
nearly 1,500 acres of other developed, school, park, golf course and
vacant land.