Murrieta council approves multiple community facilities districts and annexations for Rustic Meadows and Kensington developments

The Murrieta City Council on July 15 approved a series of resolutions and conducted landowner elections to form and annex multiple Community Facilities Districts (CFDs) that will finance maintenance services, public safety services, and bond-funded public facilities for new developments including Rustic Meadows and Kensington Apartments.

Finance Director Javier Carcamo presented a consolidated staff report covering items 18 through 21. Staff described four related CFD actions: formation of CFD 2025-4 for Rustic Meadows; two annexations into CFD 2025-2 (Rustic Meadows and Kensington Apartments); and formation of CFD 2025-s, a successor public safety CFD that includes an annual escalator for single-family, multifamily and affordable housing properties.

Key details presented by staff included the following project metrics as stated on the record: Rustic Meadows is approximately 10 gross acres with about 153 single-family units and a maintenance special tax of $332 per unit (projected assessment revenue approximately $770,796). Kensington Apartments is roughly 4.7 gross acres with 126 multifamily units and a proposed maintenance special tax of $98 per unit. Staff proposed a public-safety special tax of $580 per single-family unit, $468 per multifamily unit and $150 for affordable housing units, each with a 4% annual escalator; the maintenance CFD would have an escalator of 2% or CPI (whichever is greater) with no cap.

For Rustic Meadows staff disclosed a proposed maximum bonded indebtedness of $5,000,000; bond proceeds were described as anticipated to be used in part to pay school district mitigation fees and other public facilities needs, and staff recommended entering a joint community facilities agreement with Murrieta Valley Unified School District.

The council opened public hearings, the city clerk reported no written protests representing more than 50% of acreage within the affected CFDs, and the clerk conducted the required landowner elections. For each CFD action the clerk reported ballots were cast and that propositions passed by more than two-thirds of votes cast. The council adopted the resolutions calling the elections and later certified results and introduced related ordinances (several ordinance and resolution numbers were spoken on the record during the hearing; staff and mayor clarified the correct ordinance numbers while presenting).

All motions on the CFD items carried unanimously, 5-0, and the clerk initiated ordinance introductions and second-reading scheduling as required. Staff said that existing residents would not be financially impacted unless they buy property within one of the newly annexed developments.

Council members asked clarifying questions about the escalators and the fully burdened effective tax rate; staff said the presented effective tax rate for the developer in one example was 1.58% (fully burdened rate) and that this compares favorably with historical examples that have been higher.

The council's actions included establishing the CFDS, calling elections, certifying election results, determining necessity to incur bonded indebtedness (for Rustic Meadows), and introducing CFD ordinances as the next procedural step.