sr-071178-11bJUj g f ~',~
Santa Monica, California June 19, 1978
T0: Mayor and City Council
fROMc City Staff
SUBJECT: Request to Form Streetlight Assessment District On
Twelfth Street Between Marguerita and Carlyle
Introduction
This report presents information regarding the petition which eras received.
from the property owners, and makes recommendations regarding the formation
of a street lighting assessment district.
Background
In 1973 a petition was received from the residents of the above area requesting
that street lights be installed. At that time, tiie City had a policy of
paying 50 percent of the installation costs of street lights in residential
neighborhoods. A national energy shortage developed and all street lighting
districts were suspended and there have been none formed since then. Further-
more, for the past four years, the City has not budgeted any money to fund. the
City's half of any assessment districts since the likelihood of any districts
being formed was very slight.
The residents of Twelfth Street are extremely anxious to obtain street lights
for their neighborhood. In the opinion of the staff, the district. should be
formed; however, there are two problems. First, there are no funds budgeted
for the City's portion of the district, should it be formed.. In addition,
the petitions from the property owners are now several years old, and not only
has there been a change in ownership of several of the. properties, but costs
have escalated substantially. If the City policy to fund half of the assess-
ment district is not continued, the assessments will be approximately three to
f'~ J U L 1 1 1978
Mayor and City Staff -2- June 19, 1978
four times larger than indicated when the property owners originally signed
the petition in 1973. If a district is formed the owners may pay for the
work over a 10 year period.
Alternatives
A. Appropriate $35,000 from unappropriated reserves to fund the City's
portion of this project.
B. Adopt a new policy whereby all street lighting assessment districts must
be funded entirely by the benefitted property oNmers. This will result
in the costs to the property owners being approximately $800 for a
typical lot vs. approximately $400 per typical lot, the cost as per
previous policy.
Recommendation
1. Because of the reasons listed above, staff recommends that the sponsors of
this project be requested to obtain a new petition with a minimum number
of 60 percent of the property owners requesting the formation of the
assessment district.
2. Adopt Alternative B and direct the staff to prepare new petition forms for
the property owners to circulate and return to the City for implementation
should 60% of the owners now favor the project.
Prepared by: Stan Scholl
Toivo Marjanen