Landscaping Districts Survive Prop. 218 Vote

Each of the four landscape maintenance districts within the city of Calabasas was upheld in a vote of homeowners, allowing the city to continue collecting fees to care for the common landscaped areas.

Proposition 218 gave residents the chance to decide whether to continue paying into or to dismantle the districts in a mail-in election concluded on July 2.

About 60% of the city’s property owners pay $2.4 million annually into the districts, said Bill Millar, city landscape district manager.

In the primarily residential area District 22 in the eastern portion of Calabasas south of the Ventura Freeway, 62% of the property owners returned ballots approving the collection by 91%.

In Lost Hills’ District 24, 33% of the voters returned ballots, approving the district by 76%.

In District 27 along Las Virgenes Road, 32% of property owners voted and approved the district by 73%.

In District 32, the small, mostly commercial area of Agoura Road, 48% of property owners returned ballots, approving the collection by 100%.

The city will not have to conduct another election by mail unless it seeks an increase in the assessments, Millar said.

Some commercial and condominium owners may see a decrease in their assessment because of a new system that figures fees based on square footage, rather than charging every owner the same regardless of property size, he added.

If the districts had been dismantled, the responsibility of maintaining the common landscaping in some developments and commercial areas would have fallen to individual property owners, a situation Millar said probably contributed to a high voter response.

“Generally speaking, they didn’t want to do this themselves,” he said. “That’s pretty much what they were voting for.”