Yorba Linda city commissioners list priorities for budget considerations for 2019-20 and 2020-21

One of the more important duties of Yorba Linda's 20 city commissioners is to make formal recommendations to the City Council on priorities for spending the dollars the city collects each year in taxes and fees.

Currently, the city is implementing some of the suggestions commissioners made related to the new library and arts center projects underway on Lakeview Avenue, north of Yorba Linda Boulevard.

(Despite some rain delays, the library and arts center openings are “on target” for 2020, according to officials.)

Now, two of the five-member, council-appointed commissions are developing other priorities to submit to the council for consideration in the budget that will be adopted for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The Parks and Recreation Commission is working on priorities for park improvement projects to be suggested for funding, with a final listing expected to be adopted at an April 18 meeting at city hall at 6:30 p.m.

However, commissioners examined a city staff-developed list of potential priorities and possible funding mechanisms at a March 21 meeting.

The list included Adventure Playground renovation, Jessamyn West Park picnic shelter replacement, Kingsbriar Park playground equipment replacement and pickleball courts.

Others on the list: athletic field lighting, exercise equipment at existing parks and prefabricated restroom, seating, artificial turf and shade structures at Checkers Dog Park.

Many parks projects are funded by park in-lieu fees paid by developers in place of providing land for future parks. The fees, recently increased, are $16,716 for single-family residences and $10,718 per unit in multi-family developments.

The city has about $2 million in the park in-lieu fund now, with $3.2 million more expected in the next few years, according to figures provided commissioners by Parks and Recreation Director Mike Kudron. He noted funds needed for “all existing projects totals over $4 million.”

Kudron also reported the current list doesn't include all future projects that need funding, citing past recommendations to the council in 2014 and later years, plus unfunded items already included in a “second tier” of projects and “major maintenance to existing parks.”

The Traffic Commission has established priorities for signals at nine intersections that meet complex traffic signal warrants outlined in state regulations and are based on data from a 466-page study completed last month by a city-hired consultant.

Priorities suggested for the next two budget years, in order: Bastanchury Road and Eureka Avenue, Bastanchury Road and Casa Loma Avenue, Lakeview Avenue and Oriente Drive and Lakeview and Buena Vista avenues.

The others: Fairmont Boulevard and Yorba Linda High School near south parking, Buena Vista Avenue and Van Buren Street, Village Center Drive and East Lake Shopping Center south driveway, Lakeview and Mariposa avenues and Esperanza and Yorba Ranch roads.