Assessment District Studied for Boulevard

A proposal to change the way property owners are asked to pay for a planned overhaul of Ventura Boulevard is a “very viable” way to go, a consultant who has worked on similar projects told a Los Angeles city-appointed panel.

Lee Strong, a consultant to the development of Old Town Pasadena, said establishing a so-called assessment district--in which property owners pay a predetermined amount over a period of years--could work as a substitute to controversial fees based on the amount of traffic that a business generates.

Strong on Tuesday addressed the 13-member oversight panel that is studying funding alternatives to so-called “trip fees,” which have been imposed on new developments on Ventura Boulevard since 1985.

Under trip fees, property owners are charged based on the amount of rush-hour traffic their businesses are expected to generate. But the fees have come under attack in recent months for placing an unfair burden on newcomers and discouraging development on the boulevard.

However, city Planning Associate Tom Rath said city planners would likely recommend that trip fees be retained, but that they also be reduced--but to no less than $1,150. The fees are assessed according to a complicated formula that has left one large property with a bill of $800,000.

Panel chairman Jeff Brain favors halving the plan’s $222-million budget and forming an assessment district to pay for roughly $50 million in improvements. The rest would be paid by vastly reduced trip fees. He said if trip fees remain too high, property owners--who must approve establishment of an assessment district--might be hesitant to support one.

Typically, such districts are set up so that the cost of a project is spread fairly evenly among property owners over several years. Trip fees, on the other hand, are assessed just once.