West Covina : Landscape Fees Trimmed

At a special meeting, the City Council on Monday reduced the fees it charges residents of two hillside neighborhoods for landscaping.

Homeowners had criticized the fees as excessive and unwarranted.

In May, resident Frank Barbagallo criticized city-administered maintenance districts for spending $396,000 without ensuring that his hillside neighborhood is landscaped and brush is removed from the “natural areas.”

The maintenance districts, established over the past 20 years in five of the city’s newer subdivisions, were established to require developers to provide greenery, which the city subsequently maintains.

Homeowners, led by Barbagallo, also protested the city’s use of interest from the district’s funds for other city departments. The city had previously pledged to return interest funds to the district coffers.

On Monday, the council reduced the emergency funds that the residents had criticized as excessive by reducing the assessment fees for next year. For each of the 240 homeowners in District 6, the $380 fee proposed by city staff was reduced to $280. That will decrease the $250,000 contingency fund by about $25,000.

In District 7, the council reduced the staff proposal from $550 to $500 for the 400 homeowners, and from $250 to $200 for undeveloped properties.

The council also promised to form an advisory committee of homeowners to work with city staff on future assessment levels, the size of the contingency funds and the fate of the as yet undetermined amount of interest income that the city spent outside the district.

Although Barbagallo said he was generally pleased with the council’s actions, he said the homeowners are waiting to see if the city follows through on its promises.

“On paper, it is perhaps one of the biggest victories we have achieved,” he said. “There were a lot of promises made, and now we have to see if they follow through.”