Following an October vote to raise their own fees, residents in several Saugus neighborhoods should start to see some greener shrubbery, according to city officials.
New service contracts for three areas are expected to keep up with residents’ expectations, now that the city has the revenue to fund the care, according to Andrew Adams, who manages the city’s special districts, in a phone interview Monday.
The new contracts, which are expected to be approved by the City Council at Tuesday’s meeting, are expected to go into effect July 1.
City officials raised concerns last year that the service level — which was already considered inadequate by some residents — was costing the city 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’s because the costs had not grown to stay in line with the city’s increased costs over the years due to factors such as inflation, and following its annexation of the land, the city never held a Proposition 218 vote to assess residents’ service fees. (Passed in 1996, Prop. 218 strictly limits local governments’ ability to impose taxes, assessments and property-related fees without voter approval and requires the cost to match the service.)
Ballots were sent to more than 600 property owners in the T44, T48, and T62 communities in mid-July, according to an email last year from Adams, who added that residents were provided with several options.
The three specific landscape maintenance districts impacted are: T-44, or “Bouquet Canyon,” which impacts 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, mostly around Kathleen Avenue, between Lapine and Darroe avenues; and 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.
In Bouquet, property owners approved a monthly fee increase from $25 to $50 for landscaping, with 104 ballots in favor. In Shadow Hills, the increase from just under $38 per month to $93.75 monthly, with 25 of the 48 ballots in favor. Canyon Heights, which impacts 215 properties, had 48 of 85 residents who voted, in favor of the increase. Their monthly fee would go from $50 per month to just under $73.
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.
