Council approves tentative approach to large maintenance-district fee jump; will phase increase and review code changes

Council members flagged a substantial increase in a maintenance improvement district assessment and asked staff to smooth the impact for homeowners.

Staff said the Celodel Soul Maintenance Improvement District was originally billed at about $3,000 per year based on developer activity but that competitive contracting produced estimates closer to $9,000 and possibly higher. Town staff recommended placing the full amount in the tentative budget now (so the council can later reduce it at levy-setting but cannot increase the cap) and phasing the true cost into taxable assessments over two years while the town temporarily subsidizes part of the increase.

"We have decided that we are going to phase that in," a staff member told council during the consent-item discussion, explaining staff will ask council to subsidize the increase this year so the jump to property owners is not immediate. Finance Director Katie Pel added that the tentative budget includes the full amount now because the levy cannot be increased later; staff will bring a detailed public hearing and additional presentation at a future meeting to set the final levy and discuss code changes.

Council asked development services to return with changes to prevent future surprises in maintenance districts and requested a more granular presentation to justify the jump to homeowners. The council approved moving the consent item forward and adopted the tentative budget set for later public hearing consideration.

Next steps: staff will present detailed contract/bid cost comparisons and a plan to phase assessments at the scheduled public hearing and will return with recommended development-service code modifications to prevent similar mismatches in future subdivisions.