Elk Grove's Camden Area Property Owners Vote For Maintenance Fees Increase

Tax increases in other neighborhoods rejected

Property owners approved new park maintenance fees to meet increasing costs in one benefit-assessment area but rejected them in two other areas during mail-in balloting, the Cosumnes Community Services District (CSD) announced yesterday.

Property owners in the Camden area approved a new benefit assessment on a 55 percent vote. The decision means the CSD will be able to continue performing maintenance work at current standards and pay for maintenance improvements in the Camden zone.

Property owners rejected new benefit assessments in the Central Elk Grove area by 66 percent and in the Elk Grove West Vineyard area by 66 percent. Based on the balloting results, CSD staff members will present an array of recommendations to reduce park maintenance costs in these areas to the District’s Board of Directors during a special last night.

Recommendations to balance budgets include reductions in landscape maintenance contracts and water, less staff time, elimination of supplies and landscape improvements, and closure of some restrooms.

"We asked property owners what they would like in order to ensure our decisions were aligned with what people wanted," said Jeff Ramos, acting general manager of the CSD. "They have now spoken to us. They’ve told us what they feel they would like us
to do."

"We tried very hard to make sure that people understood that if the benefit assessments didn’t pass, then there would be hard decisions to make about some of the District’s parks and landscape corridors. Available funding and costs have to balance. Now we don’t have funding available to meet our costs, and costs have to be reduced," Ramos said.

The CSD sought property owners’ approval of new benefit assessments equaling about $7to $10 per month due to dramatically increasing water rates, utility bills and other costs associated with maintaining parks in three areas east of Highway 99. The mail-in balloting procedure took place over a 45-day period that began May 1.

The CSD has implemented spending cutbacks and has kept district residents apprised of the situation, advising them that at some point it would be necessary to either reduce services or seek additional assessments in the three underfunded areas.

While nine of the CSD’s Landscape and Lighting benefit zones are financially stable, funds cannot be transferred from one zone to another. Only property owners in a particular zone can approve benefit assessments in their area, under state law. benefit assessments are then used for maintaining parks and playgrounds, landscaped roadside corridors and some street medians within those zones.

Camden property owners’ approval of a new benefit assessment of about $10 per month will allow the CSD to continue watering and landscaping at current standards in the area, and also will provide funds for replacing aging play structures and other facilities in older parks.

Cost reduction recommendations in Central Elk Grove and Elk Grove West Vineyard parks and corridors are scheduled to go into effect July 1. More information is available at the CSD website, www.yourcsd.com, or by calling 916-405-5300.