Antioch sets July 22 hearing after engineer's report shows $4.8M assessment shortfall for maintenance districts

The council accepted the city engineer’s consolidated report and set a July 22 public hearing to finalize assessments for the Hillcrest, Citywide Downtown, Almond Ridge, Lone Tree and East Lone Tree street-lighting and landscaping maintenance districts.

Director Bunting told council there are no proposed assessment increases this year and that the city will levy the same assessment rates as the prior year. Staff estimated district revenue for FY 2025–26 at roughly $2.3 million. Estimated maintenance costs for the districts total about $7.1 million, leaving an estimated shortfall of approximately $4.8 million to be covered by the general fund; staff said that shortfall was already included in the adopted fiscal year budget.

Multiple public commenters urged the council to address long-running underfunding and maintenance gaps in specific neighborhoods. Resident Andrew Becker asked why new housing developments are approved without assessment rates or impact fees that cover long-term maintenance and argued the general fund should not repeatedly subsidize unmet assessment needs. Crystal Law and others reported specific dark streets and unmaintained medians in their neighborhoods and urged more targeted spending and long-term planning.

Councilmembers discussed Prop 218 voter constraints, which limit automatic rate increases and require a public vote to increase assessments in many cases. Several councilmembers said staff should analyze options and that the council may need to consider a Prop 218 measure or other mechanisms to address structural funding shortfalls. The council set the July 22 public hearing by unanimous vote.