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Waldron Road IDD would place 30-year assessment on buyers, Winstead PC representative says
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Summary
At a La Verne workshop, Keith Randall of Winstead PC told the board the proposed Waldron Road Infrastructure Development District would be disclosed in purchase agreements and that assessments run with the property for 30 years, are prepayable and secured by the land, not the city.
The La Verne Board of Mayor and Aldermen heard detailed explanations on April 30 about a proposed Waldron Road Infrastructure Development District that would attach a 30-year assessment to properties in the district.
Keith Randall of Winstead PC, the applicant’s representative, told the board the developers and homebuilders have committed to include a two-page statutory-style disclosure in every purchase and sale agreement that "will state very clearly what their assessment obligation is over 30 years, what happens if they don't pay that assessment, that they can refinance that assessment, that they can prepay that assessment without penalty." Randall said assessments would be fixed for the life of the bond and that prepayment would be allowed without penalty.
Randall said the bonds used to finance the infrastructure would be secured against the property, not the city, so "there's no obligation from the city or the issuing agency to cover any of the costs." He described the process if a developer failed, saying bondholders could foreclose on unfinished parcels and seek a new developer to complete the project. Randall added that an administrator paid from bond proceeds would handle collections and delinquencies.
Board members and staff pressed for homeowner protections and disclosure. One member noted the city's average property tax was about $4.67 and warned that "this fee is gonna be $1,500 on top of that," a figure the board cited in its discussion of buyer awareness. Randall said builders have agreed to include clear disclosure language and that, in practice, the financing mechanism is similar to practices used in Texas where these instruments are more established.
City staff and the applicant also discussed collection logistics: assessments would likely appear on property tax bills and be collected through escrow accounts when mortgages use them, which Randall said reduces the chance of unpaid assessments. He said if an owner does not pay, the obligation runs with the parcel and could lead to foreclosure actions by bondholders; the city itself would not be on the hook for paying bond obligations.
Why it matters: The discussion frames how the IDD would shift infrastructure financing costs onto individual property assessments rather than general city revenues, affecting buyers’ long-term costs. Board members asked staff to clarify recording options (deed language or plat notation) and to determine whether and how the district’s existence will be made obvious in real-estate documents.
The board scheduled related public hearings for May 7 at 5:45 p.m. as part of the agenda packet; no formal vote on the IDD resolution occurred at the workshop.
