La Cresta Landscape Lighting & Assessment District

La Cresta Landscape Lighting & Assessment District

Historical Formation Number 6
CSD Accounting Fund Number 27
Engineer's Report Number 17
County Assessor Tax Code 64303

EDHCSD Resolution Number: 1988-25
EDHCSD Resolution Number (Phase III Annexation): 1991-10

La Cresta Village LLAD improvements are located on Wilson Boulevard and open space North of Wilson BLVD between Ridgeview and Patterson Drive.

Improvements Include:

  • Landscaping – 5,407 square feet (SF).
  • Stucco wall – 800 lineal feet (LF).
  • Iron fence – 1,018 lineal feet (LF).
  • Wood fence – 1,337 lineal feet (LF).
  • Stucco entry sign – 165 lineal feet (LF).
  • Walkway – 12,240 square feet (SF).
  • Streetlight – one (1).
La Cresta Stantec Map Only

2021 Underfunded LLAD Engagement Quick Links

Engagement
General LLAD History
La Cresta (LLAD #27) Assessment Information
Ballot and Q&A Virtual Session Information

May 12, 2021 Q&A Virtual Session Presentation
Q&A from May 12, 2021 Virtual Session
Proposition 218 Notification of Proposed Assessment Change

BALLOT NOTIFICATION ADDRESSING INFLATIONARY FACTOR

The El Dorado Hills Community Services District (District) last engaged with owners of the La Cresta LLAD #27 in late 2019/early 2020 regarding the non-inflationary factor and underfunded status of your LLAD. Due to COVID, the District’s continued outreach was delayed. The District had a mailed ballot vote to address the status of your LLAD in May 2021. Ballots were mailed no later than May 28, 2021.  A sample ballot can be found here.

Resolution No. 2021-07 Declaring Its Intent to Increase the Per Parcel Assessment for the La Cresta Landscaping Lighting Assessment District No. 6 (5/13/2021)

Information regarding the background and details of your LLAD are outlined below.

ENGAGEMENT
The District began this process back in January 2018, hosting a meeting for the owners of El Dorado Hills who pay into District-managed Landscape and Lighting Assessment Districts (LLADs), specifically those formed without an annual inflationary factor.

In response to questions received during the January meeting, the District held individual meetings in late 2019/early 2020 with each of the four (4) LLADs without an inflationary factor and are in an underfunded status. Since those meetings, the District has updated its Cost Allocation and Asset Reserve Studies, and are re-engaging owners to finalize addressing the condition of their LLAD.

GENERAL LLAD HISTORY
An LLAD is a funding mechanism, assessed by a levy on parcels, and created to financially assist local governments, such as the District, in providing the administration, operations and maintenance of assets within a defined boundary. Between the late 1980s and mid-1990s, the District formed several LLADs to fund the improvements, operations and maintenance of assets throughout El Dorado Hills, such as irrigation and landscape areas, street lights, fencing, entry monuments, and a variety of other park and open space facilities. The assets and funds associated with the LLADs are individually tracked within the District’s budget and reported on an annual basis.

La Cresta (LLAD #27) Assessment Information
La Cresta (“LLAD #27”) was formed in 1989 and is comprised of a number of assets and maintenance areas including:
• Landscaping – 5,407 square feet
• Weed abatement – 41,260 square feet
• Stucco wall – 800 lineal feet
• Iron fence 1,018 lineal feet
• Wood fence 1,337 lineal feet
• Stucco entry sign – 165 lineal feet
• Walkway – 12,240 square feet
• Streetlight – One (1)

At the time of formation, an inflationary factor, also referred to as a Consumer Price Index (“CPI”), was not incorporated into the assessment to fund future increasing costs related to the operations and maintenance for the above referenced assets. For the past 32 years, this has resulted in a “flat” or “level” assessment (current maximum assessment is $158.30) to the parcels within La Cresta LLAD #27. The major factors supporting the need to include an inflationary adjustment in an LLAD assessment are related to the rising costs for materials, utilities, labor, etc. The exclusion of this inflationary factor has contributed to insufficient funding of the LLAD.

If LLAD #27 had been created with an inflationary factor, similar to other LLADs in the District, the maximum assessment would have increased from $158.30 in 1989 to $372.30 in 2020, an annual increase associated to the CPI, which ranged from 0.7% and 5% during that period of time. Based on current market costs and the condition of current assets needing replaced, the proposed maximum rate to be assessed is $553.50.

Ballot and Q&A Virtual Session Information

The following options were made available by mail ballot:

OPTION 1 (recommended)
La Cresta owners agree to the recommended assessment and inflationary increase to their current assessment to meet the operations and maintenance needs, up to the proposed maximum rate of $553.50.

OPTION 2
La Cresta owners do not approve an inflationary increase. With this option, decreased operations and maintenance, and potential removal of assets will be necessary based on available budget.

OPTION 3
Owners organize a Homeowners Association (HOA) and dissolve the LLAD completely. With this dissolution, the HOA would be required to manage and provide maintenance services to the area. Should the Bass Lake A owners opt to absorb maintenance operations into a newly formed HOA, formation of a “shell LLAD” would be required to ensure that if the HOA were to fail, the District has the ability to activate the LLAD to fund maintenance operations.

La Cresta LLAD is one of several in this same position, where an inflationary factor was not included and funding is limited. Current regular operations and maintenance costs for LLAD #27 averages $12,000-$19,000 annually. In addition to regular annual maintenance, the District also refers to the “Browning Reserve Study”, a deferred maintenance report to identify and schedule repair and/or replacement of the assets within the LLAD.

Several scheduled repairs and/or replacement of assets have not occurred due to the present inability to increase the assessment to match the funds needed to perform that work. The current list of assets and cost for these improvements are outlined in the table below:

Reserve Component (Asset) Budget
Irrigation Misc. (valves, sprinklers, drainage) $ 175
Entry Tree Maintenance $ 979
Entry Bark Replacement $ 999
Repair Brick Pilasters $1,539
Entrance Light Repairs $1,551
Stucco Repair Pilasters $3,133
Paint Pilasters & Wall  $3,228
Paint Entry Wall $3,273
Repair Damaged Walkway $11,638
Paint Iron Fence  $12,439

La Cresta Entry Monument   La Cresta Entry Monument (2)

La Cresta Pilaster    La Cresta Wrought Iron Fencing  

La Cresta Wall  La Cresta Shrubs

Directing District General funds towards backfilling the “underfunded” LLADs is not an equitable way to resolve the issue, as it causes a reduction in funding used for other District-wide obligations.

The District is seeking resolution to properly address the LLADs that are insufficiently funded. To assist in this process, your participation in the upcoming vote by mail ballot is requested. Ballots will be mailed no later than May 28, 2021.

Q & A Virtual Session for La Cresta LLAD
May 12, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom

The District looks forward to working together with our owners. The outcome of your vote will help determine how the future of the LLAD will be maintained.