School Assessment District Prompts Suit

A taxpayers group has filed suit against the Torrance school district, charging that district officials approved an illegal plan to make property owners pay for campus maintenance.

Attorneys for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. say an assessment district approved by Torrance Unified School District board members last month violates of provision of Proposition 13 that tax increases must be approved by two-thirds of the voters.

The group has filed three similar suits in the past year, including two pending against the Whittier and Bonita school districts. Another lawsuit filed against a school district in the city of Orange was dropped after the district rescinded its new fee.

Torrance officials created the special district, which will cost homeowners an average of $25 annually, to raise $1.6 million each year for landscaping, lighting and general upkeep of schools. District officials say they can create the assessment district under a 1972 law allowing special fees for projects that would increase the value of neighboring properties.