LANDSCAPE UPKEEP TAX OK'D BY 52% : PALMDALE LANDSCAPE ASSESSMENT RESULTS DISTRICT DISTRICTS PASSING DISTRICTS FAILING TOTAL ASSESSMENT APPROVED EASTSIDE 16 34 $169,495 CENTRAL 37 28 $270,195 WESTSIDE 38 21 $730,645.Byline: Jim Skeen Do you mean:
Property owners in 52 percent of the city's newer housing tracts have agreed to be taxed to continue maintaining landscaping around their neighborhoods. The City Council voted Wednesday night to form landscape maintenance districts in 91 subdivisions where a majority of property owners who turned in ballots supported them. Voters in 83 subdivisions rejected forming assessment districts. The fees in the 91 districts range from $12 to $257 annually. Combined the districts will raise $1.17 million a year. For the remaining subdivisions, reserve funds are sufficient to keep water and maintenance going until October, while city officials try to convince homeowners there to accept the tax or come up with some other way to keep the landscaping from dying. ``The working plan is to continue maintenance through October. That gives them more of an opportunity to decide as neighborhoods what they are going to do,'' said Councilman David Myers. ``I hope we can develop something that will keep those neighborhoods from being an eyesore eye·sore n. Something, such as a distressed building, that is unpleasant or offensive to view. eyesore Noun something very ugly Noun 1. .'' City officials are looking at ways for homeowners to petition for a second vote on the landscaping tax, said Public Works public works pl.n. Construction projects, such as highways or dams, financed by public funds and constructed by a government for the benefit or use of the general public. Noun 1. Director Steve Williams Steve Williams may refer to:
The city also will try to work with homeowner associations to find alternative ways to provide for the upkeep of landscaping. Palmdale had to finalize fi·nal·ize tr.v. fi·nal·ized, fi·nal·iz·ing, fi·nal·iz·es To put into final form; complete or conclude: "They have jointly agreed ... the balloting this month in order to get the assessments included on the 1997-98 property tax bills sent out by Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County. City officials said they have not determined how to handle landscape maintenance bills for any subdivisions in which homeowners agree to pay the assessment in coming months. Homeowners have been paying assessments to maintain landscaping around subdivisions built since 1984, but those assessments were the victim of Proposition 218. Passed by California California (kăl'ĭfôr`nyə), most populous state in the United States, located in the Far West; bordered by Oregon (N), Nevada and, across the Colorado River, Arizona (E), Mexico (S), and the Pacific Ocean (W). voters in November, the measure blocks municipal governments from enacting property-based assessments or increasing existing assessments without voter VOTER. One entitled to a vote; an elector. approval. Instead of asking homeowners to vote on one fee that would be applied to all, city officials said Prop. 218 requires that fees be based on the benefit each property owner would receive. That resulted in the city putting 174 districts, one for each housing tract, up for an election. Last year's assessment raised $2.3 million. CAPTION(S): Chart: Palmdale landscape assessment results (See text) |
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