LCF to pay for sewer system

Ryan Carter

La Canada Flintridge is moving ahead with plans to create a sewage

system for about 1,400 homes, at its own expense.

That was the unanimous direction given by council members at

Tuesday night’s meeting in which the discussion of sewage slowly

flowed to a decision to issue bonds to finance Sewer District No. 3.

The decision comes on the heels of the state Water Resources

Control Board’s plan to suspend a loan program that the city had been

banking on to create its third sewer district, a sewer system to be

built north of Foothill Boulevard and bounded by La Canada Boulevard

on the east to Ocean View Boulevard on the west.

“The state has told us it could be 24 months before we would know

the status of their loan program,” Councilman Anthony Portantino

said. “Given the uncertainty of that and that interest rates are

being predicted to go up, we felt it made the most sense to go

forward with our own bonds given the historic low interest rates now,

and give the residents the opportunity to move forward with sewers.”

The sewers are needed, officials said, because the city is in the

midst of a three-phase program to convert septic tank systems into

sewer systems. The second phase, Sewer District No. 2, is under

construction.

With the vote Tuesday, city staff will begin preparing

construction and engineering contracts to be put out for bids.

Improvement bonds will finance the project, which is estimated to

cost about $29 million.

Residents must approve creating the third district and taking on

the bonds, and will receive ballots in the mail to vote between

April 19 and June 8. The council will vote to issue the bonds, if

residents vote in favor.

The council could have left the issue alone and waited for the

state funding program to restart, or it could have dropped the

project altogether.

Under the conditions approved Tuesday by the council, the city

will go ahead with plans to create one assessment district, with two

zones in which sewage would flow into a Los Angeles County treatment

facility and a Crescenta Valley Water District treatment hub.

Included in the assessment would be the cost of road-surface sealing

and pipeline connection fees.

In the proposed bond issue, the average annual assessment for

property owners in the district was estimated to be $1,568 per year

on property-tax bills each year over 20 years, City Manager Mark

Alexander said. Officials said the figure could be lower, depending

on costs of construction. They also said that once a district is

formed, residents would have the option to pay the assessment

upfront.