Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: CONSENT CALENDAR (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: Resolution Appointing the Engineer of Work for preparing the Cotati Landscape and Lighting Assessment District for FY 23-24
Date: January 24, 2023
Written by: Craig Scott, Director of Public Works/City Engineer Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council of the City of Cotati adopt a resolution appointing the City Engineer, as the Engineer of Work for the FY 2023-24 Cotati Landscape and Lighting District and directing the preparation and filing of the Annual Engineer's Report pursuant to Section 22622 of the Streets and Highways Code.
Background
In FY 17/18, the City consolidated the ten landscape and lighting assessment districts into one District. The ten Cotati Landscaping and Lighting Assessment Districts (“Districts”) were initially formed by the City from 1989 to 2003 in accordance with the Landscaping and Lighting Act of 1972 (“Landscaping and Lighting Act”) to pay for costs associated with maintaining landscaping and streetlights within developments. The ten initial districts are kept separate within the consolidated District as individual zones, each with their original name.
Analysis/Discussion
The Landscaping and Lighting Act requires that the City undertake certain proceedings for any fiscal year in which assessments are to be levied and collected. These proceedings are typically accomplished at three separate Council meetings with the following actions:
1) Adopt a resolution appointing the Engineer of Work and directing the preparation of the annual Engineer’s Report.
2) Approve the Preliminary Engineer’s Report, declare the City Council’s intent to levy assessments and set a date for a public hearing.
3) Conduct a public hearing, approve the Final Engineer’s Report and authorize the levying and collection of assessments for the upcoming fiscal year.
The attached resolution begins the proceedings for the 2023-24 Fiscal Year. The Engineer’s Report will analyze the anticipated FY 2023-24 costs for each zone in the District and determine the corresponding assessment amounts. The City Council can make changes to the Engineer’s Report once it has been prepared and filed. There are no annexations to the District anticipated for FY 2023-24.
Financial Considerations
All costs associated with these annual proceedings and the annual operation, maintenance and administration of the Landscaping and Lighting Assessment District are recovered from the annual assessments levied on the properties within the District. The City prepares the annual engineer’s report in-house with no consultant. Total city staff costs to prepare the annual engineers reports have been dropping with improved efficiencies since consolidating the zones into one District. Costs were $8,066 for the FY17/18 report, $4,400 in FY18/19, $4,000 in FYs 19/20 and 20/21, and $2,572.80, in FY21/22.
Environmental Issues
This action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it is not a project which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, pursuant to CEQA Guideline section 15378.