Monrovia council moves forward with citywide assessment district, ballots to be mailed Sept. 26

The Monrovia City Council voted Sept. 16 to order the formation of a combined citywide Lighting, Landscaping and Parks Maintenance Assessment District (proposed District No. 25-1), approve the engineers report and begin the Proposition 218 balloting process to levy and collect assessments.

Public-works staff and consultant NBS presented an engineers report and a five-year phase-in of parcel assessments intended to close a multi-decade funding shortfall in the city’s existing lighting and parks maintenance districts. Project manager Ray Bowman told the council the city has subsidized more than $1 million per year to maintain services because assessment revenues have not kept pace with costs and that “the proposed district is also one of the last remaining items in our fiscal resiliency plan.”

Bowman described the public-notice and ballot timeline: the city will mail parcel-specific fact sheets and ballots on Sept. 26, informational inserts will appear in utility bills and online, and Nov. 18 is the scheduled public hearing when ballots must be received by the city clerk. He noted ballots are weighted by proposed assessment amount and that the city will continue to subsidize costs during the phase-in period; rates are expected to fully cover district costs by fiscal year 2030–31.

Council reviewed representative impacts for the largest parcel class — single-family residential parcels with fewer than five units, which constitute about 82% of parcels. Staff said the average proposed assessment for that category in the first year is about $140 (an average increase of about $57 over current rates) and that most parcels in the category would see increases up to $300 by the fifth year of the phase-in.

Council approved staff’s recommendation to adopt the engineers report, mail ballots, set the Prop. 218 public hearing for Nov. 18 and authorize the city manager to cast ballots on behalf of city-owned parcels. The motion passed on a roll-call vote with all council members recorded in favor.

If a majority (by weighted ballot) of property owners reject the assessment in the Prop. 218 process, the proposed district will not be formed and the existing districts would remain in effect. If approved, the two existing districts (PMD and LLMD) would be dissolved and replaced by the new citywide district. Staff also launched a web page with an interactive map that allows property owners to look up proposed parcel assessments.