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Oxnard staff seeks annual assessments for 36 landscape maintenance districts; public hearing set June 17
Summary
City of Oxnard staff recommended initiating proceedings to levy FY2025–26 assessments for 36 landscape maintenance districts, approve a consolidated engineer's report, declare intent to levy assessments and approve limited one-time general fund adjustments and a refund; council consideration set for a June 17 public hearing.
Anthony Miller, Special Districts Manager with the City of Oxnard Public Works Department, presented staff recommendations to initiate proceedings to levy assessments for fiscal year 2025–26 across the city's landscape maintenance districts and to set a public hearing for June 17, 2025.
Miller told the City Council that staff recommended three resolutions: initiating proceedings to levy the annual assessments, approving a consolidated engineer's report covering the city's 36 landscape maintenance districts (LMDs), and declaring the council's intent to levy those assessments on the FY2025–26 property tax roll. He also recommended a one-time general fund contribution to LMD 49 and a distribution of LMD 54 reserve funds as refunds to benefiting property owners.
Why this matters: assessments paid through the property tax roll fund maintenance of public improvements that benefit parcels inside each district. Changes staff described to how the city treats less-than-annual projects—specifically removing periodic tree trimming from multi-year installments and moving it into annual operating budgets—could raise future annual assessments for some property owners.
Miller said the Special Districts Division manages 50 special financing districts, including 36 LMDs, and that the consolidated engineer's report reviews each district's description of improvements, projected annual maintenance costs, any less-than-annual projects, the method of assessment apportionment, and maps of affected parcels.
Staff reported a minor correction to the engineer's report (an error in table 6.30.1 for LMD 37) and noted that edits made after the May 13, 2025 Finance and Governance Committee meeting slightly adjusted some districts' proposed assessments and increased the general-benefit contribution in some cases.
On the mechanics of funding, Miller explained that the Landscaping and Lighting Assessment Act of 1972 allows the city to spread certain nonroutine project costs over multiple years using installments, which smooths assessment spikes in years when large projects occur. Following committee feedback, staff removed less-than-annual tree trimming from installment-funded projects and placed it in annual operating budgets. Miller warned this change will likely increase cumulative costs to property owners because it reduces opportunities to capture economies of scale. As an example given in the staff presentation, pruning all trees in LMD 34 in a single year would typically cost $30,732; trimming the same work staggered annually could cumulatively total $39,530.
Staff outlined proposed fiscal inputs for FY2025–26. The transcript includes several figures: interest income of $116,451; a general-benefit contribution from the general fund of $239,600; a general-fund utility subsidy of $101,418; a one-time assessment refund to property owners in LMD 54 of $31,386; and a one-time general-fund contribution to LMD 49 stated in the presentation at approximately $54,000 (the staff presentation text contains an inconsistent pair of figures for that contribution—$54,102 in one place and $54,802 in another). The transcript's line describing the total real-property assessment amount was unclear in the recording; the staff report is the authoritative source for the exact total.
Miller emphasized procedural deadlines: assessment information must be delivered to Ventura County by July 7, 2025, and staff recommended the council set the public hearing on the proposed assessments for June 17, 2025, at which time the council would consider a resolution confirming diagrams and assessments.
No formal vote on the recommendations was recorded in the transcript excerpt provided; the items were presented as staff recommendations for council consideration at the June 17 public hearing. "This is a process that is required each year," Miller said when summarizing the steps required under state law.
The council will consider the resolutions and the consolidated engineer's report at the June 17, 2025 public hearing; property owners in each district can review parcel-level assessment details in the engineer's report or obtain them from the City Clerk's office or the city's website.
