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2 <br /> <br />City of Pleasanton <br />Landscape Maintenance District No. 1993-1, Windsor Engineer’s Report, Fiscal Year 2024-25 <br />Engineer’s Report projects a shortage that will require the City to reduce landscape <br />maintenance and water use so that maintenance costs remain below assessments. <br /> <br />City staff began the process of potentially increasing the assessments for the Windsor <br />Landscape Maintenance District in 2022 through a Proposition 218 compliant voting <br />procedure. However, the property owners that attended the neighborhood outreach <br />meeting on February 2, 2022, voiced their desire that the City undertake more <br />significant outreach to discuss increasing the assessment prior to taking the decision to <br />vote. Staff set up a meeting with the Windsor neighborhood again on October 18, 2022, <br />to discuss the assessments. A notification was sent via mail to all property owners and <br />the HOA manager notified the residents of the meeting via email. About ten residents <br />attended the meeting to discuss the need for and process for a vote to increase the <br />assessment. The residents expressed an interest in having more control on how the <br />money is spent and requested that the City provide additional information to them <br />regarding the formation of the Windsor Landscape Maintenance District. <br /> <br />On November 3, staff sent an email to the Windsor HOA property manager that defined <br />the maintenance responsibilities associated with the development and included the <br />formation documents for the development. After receiving the formation documents, the <br />HOA Board expressed their interest in partially taking over the maintenance <br />responsibilities of the LMD rather than taking the assessment increase to a vote by the <br />homeowners. Staff worked with the HOA Board President to determine what that shared <br />maintenance would look like. On March 29, 2023, the Board submitted a letter stating <br />their commitment to take over the monthly maintenance of the planting and paying the <br />costs of water and on February 6, 2024, the HOA took over the monthly maintenance <br />and water payments. The Windsor LMD retained the other maintenance <br />responsibilities/costs, including but not limited to irrigation repairs, soundwall repair, tree <br />pruning, etc. <br /> <br />Although the HOA accepted the costs for routine plant maintenance and water to help to <br />alleviate the fund balance deficit, it is not a permanent solution. An increase in the <br />annual assessment will be necessary to meet the maintenance standards of the District <br />in the future. The city can no longer subsidize staff administration time or the consultant <br />fees for a Proposition 218-compliant vote. The consultant fees for the Proposition 218- <br />compliant vote will cost approx. $40,000 and will come out of the reserve fund. Water <br />costs are not a factor for the Windsor LMD since the HOA took over payment and that <br />will reduce the proposed assessment increase amount, but significant tree pruning and <br />capital improvement repair and replacement costs are substantial. <br /> <br />The landscape will continue to decline below the necessary maintenance standards of <br />the district established by Ordinance 2458. This can open the district up to fines or <br />litigation. To limit liability for the district, staff is pursuing a Proposition 218-compliant <br />vote for 2025/26. It will be necessary for the city to continue to pursue a proposition <br />218-compliant vote, incurring significant consultant costs each time, until a sustainable <br />assessment has been agreed to by property owners. <br /> <br />Page 321 of 720