San Clemente Studies Higher Fees Again

For the second year in a row, the City Council is gearing up to raise the fees that residents pay for the upkeep of their parks, beaches and street lights.

On Wednesday, the council set June 5 and July 3 for hearings on the issue.

Each single-family household now pays $86 a year to the landscaping and lighting assessment district. Under a preliminary plan approved three months ago by the council, that would rise by nearly $7 a year to $93.

The proposed fee hike comes on the heels of an increase last year, when it was raised $16 to cover care of two new parks and a three-mile ridgeline trail at Rancho San Clemente. Although it was the first time in four years that the fee had been raised, it met with some opposition.

“The city is bent on accumulating more and more money from the public,” said resident Karoline Koester, who opposed last year’s fee hike. “I don’t think the increase is necessary.”

This year’s latest fee increase is mainly due to the addition of Richard Steed Memorial Park to the city’s park system, street landscaping for the Colony Cove bluff stabilization and the addition of more medians, Mayor Steve Apodaca said.

“What people forget is that we have to maintain parks year after year,” Apodaca said. “That can be very expensive to do.”