City OKs Landscape Fee Hikes for Property Owners

PALMDALE —  Property owners in Palmdale will be paying more next year to keep the city’s landscaped medians and freeway interchanges alive and weed-free. And they also will help cover the city’s cost to clean up graffiti.

Despite complaints from dozens of residents, the City Council on Thursday voted 4 to 1 to raise rates in the coming year for property owners in two landscape-maintenance assessment districts. Councilman David Myers cast the lone dissenting vote.

The city has charged the landscape fees to property owners for years, but because of changes in the state law the city received a record number of responses from the public about the fee increase. The law requires that written notice be sent to property owners about proposed fee increases.

In fact, the city received more complaints Thursday when it raised the citywide fee to $9.82 a year than when it first imposed the assessment three years ago. And the fee actually will be lower in the coming year than it was when first imposed. Then, the council set it at $10.53 annually for each single-family house.

The citywide fee is collected from owners of all 34,800 parcels in the city.

A second local zone is more costly to property owners. The assessment this year will be $97.98, the highest in at least five years. The fee the city imposes on property owners in the local zone is used to pay for maintenance of greenbelts around new housing tracts.

Palmdale collects the assessments through property tax bills.