Most Yorba Linda taxpayers will benefit from new round of landscape maintenance zone voting

A sizable majority of tax-paying Yorba Lindans will benefit from a second round of balloting on fee increases in local landscape maintenance zones, even though only the zones' landowners can vote the hikes up or down.

That's because however the parcel owners vote, cash from the city's general fund revenue streams into which all taxpayers contribute will no longer subsidize the underfunded zones.

Once deficits are eliminated from all of the dozen or so of the city's 32 local landscape zones with expenses higher than income, the city can save the nearly $1 million in yearly subsidies.

If the property owners approve the increases, then the full cost of maintaining “special benefit” landscaping in their areas will be added to their property tax bills. If they oppose the hikes, the city still plans to drop the subsidies, resulting in severe maintenance cutbacks in the zones.

Already, property owners in three zones have approved increases, and balloting in five more zones ends April 5, when the separate tallies for each zone will be revealed at that evening's City Council meeting.

Increases proposed in this round are significant, ranging from 93 percent to 331 percent, representing added annual outlays of from $309 to $1,068. The zones voting earlier this year approved increases of $10, $384 and $536 for 1,930 homes in East Lake Village.

Ballots have already been mailed to property owners in the five zones in the current round, which are scattered through the city's central and eastern areas. If increases are approved for one or more of the zones, the new amounts will appear on owners' 2016-17 tax bills.

The five zones include 1,723 single-family homes,124 multi-family units and 82 other parcels, 30 exempt from fees. Close to $2 million could be collected from fees on these properties on the next tax billing.

And subsequent years will include an increase that corresponds to any consumer price index increase, but, interestingly, according to a city report: “If the percentage change in the CPI is negative, the maximum assessment rates shall not be adjusted from the previous fiscal year.”

The proposed jumps are from $323 to $1,391 on 614 homes in zone 1B (Bryant Ranch); from $331 to $781 on 301 homes in 2A (Y.L. Hills); from $331 to $882 on 217 homes in 2E (North Village Center); from $331 to $640 on 361 homes in 2K (Green Hills, Stonehaven); and from $331 to $1,097 on 230 homes in 2N (Hidden Hills).

Voting on hikes for four more zones (2L, 2P, 4A and 5A with 1,106 homes in northern and central parts of the city) is expected to take place before city officials are required to send assessment amounts to the county for inclusion on the next property tax bills.

The most recent count shows 12,149 or 57.5 percent of the city's 21,142 single-family homes and 624 or 57.6 percent of the 1,083 multi-family units – but none of the 288 mobile homes – paying fees in the 32 local zones.