By a relatively slim margin, Saugus residents in three different landscape maintenance districts approved a city request that they raise their landscaping fees so the cost aligns with the requested service level.
Santa Clarita officials put the vote to residents to adjust their own fees because there was no escalator built in for cost-of-service increases when the neighborhoods became part of the city.
City officials said that for the past decade, even as the service level didn’t match some residents’ expectations, the city has lost a little over $23,000 annually for the Bouquet Canyon district; $28,466 for the Shadow Hills district; and $7,233 in Canyon Heights.
That also meant the hours of maintenance work available had gradually dwindled as the cost of those services rose, leaving some to raise the issue with City Hall.
The closest ballot was T-44, referred to as Bouquet Canyon, which had 104 ballots received, about one-third of the properties in the district. Property owners approved a monthly fee increase from $25 to $50 for landscaping.
The neighborhood includes 302 homes from the northern terminus of Shadow Valley Lane to Bouquet Canyon Road on the east, to David Way on the west and bordering Copper Hill Drive on the south.
T-48, or “Shadow Hills,” which impacts 105 properties, received 48 ballots, and approved the increase from just under $38 per month to $93.75 monthly, with 25 in favor. That neighborhood is mostly around Kathleen Avenue, between Lapine and Darroe avenues.
T-62, or Canyon Heights, which impacts 215 properties, from Silver King Trail in the east to Rock Canyon Drive in the west, and the top of Haskell Canyon Road to Copper Hill, received 85 ballots, with 48 residents in favor. Their monthly fee would go from $50 per month to just under $73.
Due to Proposition 218, the city is required to ask residents to approve a fee hike before it’s implemented.
The city announced its outreach in April, which presented residents with several different service-level options. The one presented to residents on the ballot was considered in between the least expensive option and what the city considered a “substantial service increase.”
The fee increases are expected to generate more than $224,000 annually for the city, which is revenue collected from property taxes allocated to the zone budget.
